By Erick The inaugural summit was off to a rocky start with people claiming logistical failures (for which Ashwini Vaishnaw apologized). And food counters that accepted payment only in cash. In the year 2026.
Then there’s the Galgotias University controversy (it seems Wipro too used Unitree’s robot but no one talked about that). In case you missed it, Galgotias University had a pavilion at the Summit where they showcased a robot dog they said they developed. The internet was quick to point out that this robot is actually from a Chinese robotic global leader called Unitree (the same company that made Kung-Fu robots). I kinda feel bad for Prof. Neha Singh, who was in the limelight when the robot was introduced and also in the limelight when the University got called out, and she tried to defend the University by saying her messages were misunderstood. Anyway she’s looking for another job as per her LinkedIn profile.
But overall, the summit did have a very real impact. I mean, just look at the list of those who attended.
Okay so, what does the Government want us to remember about the Summit?
Chief Guests Include
- Prime Minister Modi
- Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
- Union Minister Piyush Goyal
- Reliance supremo Mukesh Ambani
- Adani spremo Gautam Adani
- Tata Group supremo N. Chandrasekharan
- Wipro supremo Rishad Premji
- Bharti Airtel supremo Sunil Mittal
- Google supremo Sundar Pichai
- Microsoft supremo Satya Nadella
- OpenAI supremo Sam Altman
- Anthropic supremo Dario Amodei (who it seems refused to hold hands with Altman)
- Qualcomm supremo Cristiano Amon
- Google Deepmind supremo Demis Hassabis (this guy is a legend, see this documentary)
- Meta’s AI supremo Alexandr Wang
- Accenture supremo Julie Sweet
- Adobe supremo Shantanu Narayen
- Yann LeCunn (Meta’s former chief of AI and a Turing Award winner)
- Yoshua Bengio (another Turing Award winner)
- Silicon Valley legend Vinod Khosla
- Google legend Sriram Krishnan (famous for saying they want everyone to use American AI stack)
- Congress guy Sashi Tharoor (he actually praised the summit)
- UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez
- French guy Macron (although debatable if he came specifically for the summit or for French President stuff)
- Swiss guy Guy Parmelin (president)
- UAE guy Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (crown prince of Abu Dhabi)
- UK guy and Narayan Murthy son-in-law Rishi Sunak (he got stuck in Delhi traffic, LOL)
Chief Guests Included These People – But They Didn’t Show Up
- Epstein file supremo Bill Gates (he came to India but backed out of the summit)
- NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang (didn’t come to India – but NVIDIA did send EVP Jay Puri)
The inauguration was attended by over 20 Heads of Government and 59 Ministerial-level representatives, alongside government representatives from 118 countries. The Summit also convened 100+ global AI leaders, CEOs and CXOs, and over 500 leading AI experts from across the world. Source
Key Announcements
He (Vaishnaw) noted that infrastructure-related investment pledges have crossed $250 billion, alongside approximately $20 billion in deep-tech venture commitments, reflecting growing global confidence in India’s AI infrastructure ecosystem. He also emphasized strong international endorsement of India’s sovereign AI model strategy and praised the quality of indigenous models developed with frugal innovation. Same source.
- Five local LLMs were launched: by Sarvam, Gnani, BharatGen, Fractal and Tech Mahindra.
- India’s first AI powered Air taxi was showcased by The E Plane Company in collaboration with IIT Madras.
- India officially joins Pax Silica (we were invited last month, see TWITI #3 of 2026).
- Some $250bn in committed investment according to Vaishnaw.
- All major nations, which matter in the artificial intelligence space, have signed the India AI Impact Summit 2026 declaration, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
- Dell unveils ‘AI India Blueprint’ to scale sovereign, trusted AI nationwide.
- Andhra Pradesh government signs seven MoUs to establish a Quantum-AI Hub and enhance skills and infrastructure.
- Google announced new subsea cables from India.
- NVIDIA announced partnerships to build data centres.
- OpenAI partners with Tata Group for investments in different aspects of AI (not fully revealed).
- Anthropic and OpenAI announce intent to open new offices in India.
- Jio with Reliance to invest ₹10 lakh crore over seven years, Mukesh Ambani announces.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled India’s comprehensive “MANAV Vision” for AI, outlining a human-centric framework for ethical, accountable and inclusive AI governance.
- Switzerland will host 2027 AI Summit.
- Sunar Pichai likes Bharat GI coffee. Not AI, real coffee.
There were also some protests of sorts by the Congress. Anyway.
Key Message: AI should be ethical, and accessible to all.
It is worth noting though the presence of world leaders alongside tech and AI executives. AI is now as much political as it is business-led.
By the way, the Summit was supposed to wind up today (Friday Feb 20th) but has been extended by one day, to Saturday (February 21, 2026), so that attendees can “visit with more flexible security arrangements after all the multilateral events at the venue wind up”, IT Secretary S. Krishnan said in a press conference on Wednesday. Students and professionals, who have not been able to attend on weekdays, would be able to come easily, Mr. Krishnan said.