India AI Summit Loses Gates but Gains Major Investment Pledges
Bill Gates canceled his main speech at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi just a few hours before he was supposed to speak. This happened because people are again talking about his past meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, who was a convicted sex offender and later died in jail. The issue created a lot of public attention and criticism. The Gates Foundation said the decision was made carefully. They explained that they did not want the controversy to take attention away from the main topics of the summit.
JUST IN: Bill Gates withdraws from India's AI summit amid controversy over Jeffery Epstein files. pic.twitter.com/DrQy0CYjoe
— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) February 19, 2026
Ankur Vora, who leads their work in Africa and India, will speak instead. The group says they are still 100% behind health and growth projects in India, where they’ve helped for years.
The trouble started with new US Justice Department papers from January. They named Gates linked to Epstein. His team said the stories are “totally crazy and not true.” Gates admitted he wishes he had never spent time with Epstein. Key point: No victims say Gates did anything wrong. His name in the files doesn’t mean crime. This stole the show from earlier confusion. Gates got to India this week. On Monday, he went to Andhra Pradesh to talk about health, farming, schools, and tech. Papers said Tuesday he’d speak for sure. But gossip said no, and now it’s official.
Gates not showing up hurts this fancy 5-day event. India calls it a huge deal to make the country a top AI player worldwide. People from over 100 countries came, including leaders. It mixes big talks on AI rules, setups, and good ideas. Startups show their stuff, and secret meetings happen too. Big news: Companies like Microsoft promise cash to spread AI and build tools in growing countries like India.
But it’s not perfect. Day one had planning messes. An Indian school bragged about a “made-in-India” robot dog. Turns out, it was from China. These slip-ups make it less shiny, even with deals and teamwork.
Gates gone? No problem, other big names stepped up to share AI with everyone. OpenAI’s Sam Altman gave a strong warning. He said to regulate AI now to stop disasters. “Share AI so people do well,” he said. Putting it all in one company or country could wreck things. But yes, add safety rules like for other game-changers.
India’s PM Narendra Modi jumped in for fair tech sharing. “AI should include and help, especially in poor countries,” he said. Don’t let people be just data or fuel for machines. France’s President Emmanuel Macron met Modi first. He said change talk from “do more” to “do better as a team” for AI.
Public reactions on (X) Twitter to the controversy surrounding Bill Gates show strong debate and divided opinions.
One user framed his withdrawal from the AI summit in India as a matter of personal integrity, suggesting that public figures must protect their reputation and moral standing, especially during controversies. They also asked Grok to explain the concept of integrity further, indicating an attempt to deepen the ethical discussion.
Another user criticized the state government of Andhra Pradesh for inviting him in the first place, citing online backlash related to mentions of his name in the Epstein files, and implied that his withdrawal was an effort to avoid further reputational damage.
A third user criticized the situation more generally. They said that rich billionaires often avoid real punishment, and that leaving the event does not fix the bigger problems behind the issue.
UN boss Antonio Guterres joined in. He said Don’t let a few countries or rich billionaires decide AI’s path. Google CEO Sundar Pichai cheered India. He announced an AI center in Visakhapatnam for jobs and new tech. Rich businessman Mukesh Ambani went big: $110 billion (about £81 billion) over 7 years to boost India’s AI setup. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei wants to team up on testing AI for safety risks.
The summit rolls on. Gates’ pulling out shows how personal problems hit world tech talks. But the push for fair, safe AI shows India’s strong plans and how others are joining in.
