India Hosts Global AI Summit as Tech Giants Converge on New Delhi

When the India AI Impact Summit opened its doors this week in New Delhi, it marked more than just another gathering of tech executives and policymakers. For the first time, one of the world’s premier AI conferences was being held in the developing world—and the message from Delhi was clear: the future of artificial intelligence will not be written solely in Silicon Valley or Beijing.

“The theme of the summit is welfare for all, happiness for all, reflecting our shared commitment to harnessing Artificial Intelligence for human-centric progress.” — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

A $68 Billion Bet on India’s AI Future

The numbers tell part of the story. Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have already committed a combined $68 billion in AI and cloud infrastructure investment in India through 2030. But the summit represents something more significant than capital flows—it is India’s attempt to position itself as the bridge between the developed world’s AI capabilities and the developing world’s needs.

Indian officials are framing the event as a platform to amplify voices from developing nations in global AI governance discussions. Previous summits at Bletchley Park in 2023, Seoul in 2024, and Paris in 2025 were dominated by safety commitments and voluntary corporate pledges from Western powers. Delhi offers a different perspective.

The attendance list reads like a who’s who of the AI industry. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis are all scheduled to speak. French President Emmanuel Macron will share the stage with Prime Minister Modi, underscoring the diplomatic weight attached to the event.

Application-First, Not Model-First

India’s strategy diverges sharply from the approach taken by the United States and China. While those nations race to build ever-larger foundation models, India’s Economic Survey—released last month—urged the government to focus on “application-led innovation” rather than chasing frontier-scale mega-models.

The user base is already there. With more than 72 million daily ChatGPT users by late 2025, India has become OpenAI’s largest market. The country is betting that its competitive advantage lies not in developing new foundation models, but in deploying existing ones at massive scale across its 1.4 billion population.

“India has yet to produce a globally dominant frontier AI model to rival those from the U.S. or China, but its strategy of large-scale deployment could prove equally transformative for the developing world.” — Industry Analyst

The Economic Tensions Beneath the Celebration

The summit’s optimistic messaging masks underlying economic anxieties. India’s $283 billion IT sector—the engine of its services economy—faces significant disruption from the very technologies being celebrated. Investment bank Jefferies has predicted that call centers, a cornerstone of India’s tech exports, could face a 50% revenue hit from AI adoption by 2030.

The transformation is already visible. More than 250,000 visitors are expected at the summit’s 70,000-square-meter expo at Bharat Mandapam, a $300 million convention complex that signals India’s ambition to become a global events hub. The influx has sent Delhi’s luxury hotel prices soaring—a suite at the Taj Palace that normally costs $2,200 per night was listed at over $33,000.

India’s Supreme Court issued a circular allowing advocates to appear via video conferencing during summit week, citing anticipated traffic congestion around the court. The practical disruptions underscore the gap between AI’s promise and its immediate impact on daily life.

What Comes Next

The India AI Impact Summit arrives at a pivotal moment for global AI governance. As the United States and China compete for technological supremacy, India is attempting to carve out a third path—one that emphasizes accessibility, application, and the needs of the Global South.

Whether this approach can deliver on its promises remains to be seen. Critics of previous AI summits have noted that safety commitments and governance declarations often produce few enforceable outcomes. India’s challenge will be translating its diplomatic positioning into concrete policies that benefit its population while managing the economic disruption AI brings.

For now, the world’s AI leaders are listening. The question is whether they will act.

This article was reported by the ArtificialDaily editorial team. For more information, visit Daily Maverick.