Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has projected India as a key force in the global artificial intelligence landscape, urging the world to see the country as both a development base and a delivery engine for AI innovation.
Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Modi told an audience of global leaders, tech executives and policymakers:
“Design and develop in India. Deliver to the world. Deliver to humanity.”
His remarks underscore India’s ambition to capitalize on its fast-growing digital economy and strong record in building scalable digital public infrastructure, positioning itself as a cost-effective and inclusive AI powerhouse.
The summit also featured addresses from Emmanuel Macron, Sundar Pichai and António Guterres.
Guterres urged the creation of a $3 billion global fund to help developing nations strengthen their AI capabilities from technical skills and data access to affordable computing infrastructure.
“The future of AI cannot be decided by a handful of countries, or left to the whims of a few billionaires,” Guterres said, adding that AI must “belong to everyone.”
India is using the summit to present itself as a bridge between advanced economies and the Global South. Officials point to the country’s digital identity system and online payment platforms as successful examples of deploying technology at scale and low cost.
“We must democratize AI. It must become a tool for inclusion and empowerment, particularly for the Global South,” Modi said.
With nearly one billion internet users, India has become a critical growth market for global technology giants.
In recent months:
- Microsoft announced a $17.5 billion investment over four years to expand cloud and AI infrastructure in India.
- Google committed $15 billion over five years, including plans to establish its first AI hub in the country.
- Amazon pledged $35 billion by 2030, focusing on AI-led digital transformation.
India is also seeking as much as $200 billion in data center investments in the coming years to support its growing AI ecosystem.
However, the country still trails in developing its own advanced large-scale AI models comparable to those created by OpenAI in the United States or China’s DeepSeek. Limited access to high-end semiconductor chips, computing infrastructure and the complexity of training AI systems across hundreds of local languages remain significant hurdles.
Despite its high-profile agenda, the summit has encountered logistical setbacks.
The event opened Monday with reports of long queues, delays and complaints on social media about missing personal belongings and exhibition items. Organizers later stated that the missing items were recovered.
Controversy resurfaced Wednesday when a private Indian university was removed from the summit after a staff member presented a commercially available Chinese-made robotic dog as the institution’s own innovation.
Further disruption followed on Thursday when Bill Gates withdrew from a scheduled keynote appearance. While no detailed explanation was given, the Gates Foundation said the decision was made “to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities.”
Despite the hiccups, the India AI Impact Summit highlights New Delhi’s determination to play a central role in shaping the global AI conversation — particularly as debates intensify over governance, equity and access in the rapidly evolving technology sector.
With significant foreign investment commitments and a vast digital user base, India is positioning itself not just as a market for AI, but as a global hub for building and exporting AI-driven solutions.
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