India Hosts Fourth Global AI Summit, Marking a Shift Toward the Global South
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 concluded its six‑day programme at Bharat Mandapam on Friday, bringing together leaders from government, industry and international organisations. The event ran from 16 to 21 February and represented the fourth meeting in a series that began with the Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit in 2023, continued in Seoul in 2024 and moved to Paris in 2025. Each earlier gathering took place in a Western capital, whereas this edition was hosted by a nation from the Global South for the first time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the summit on 19 February. He was joined on the opening stage by French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres.
More than twenty heads of state were present, along with the chief executives of three leading AI firms: Sundar Pichai of Google, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Demis Hassabis of DeepMind. Their participation underscored both the diplomatic weight and the market relevance of the discussions. A central theme of the meeting was India’s own AI development effort, the IndiaAI Mission, which is overseen by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The summit was conceived as a venue to showcase that work, invite debate and explore whether similar approaches could be adopted elsewhere. By holding the conference in New Delhi, organizers aimed to demonstrate that the country’s growing technical talent and sizable population can influence the direction of AI policy.
The presence of officials from Europe and the United Nations gave the event international credibility, while the attendance of the tech chiefs grounded it in commercial realities. Organizers warned that if artificial intelligence continues to be shaped solely by the wealthiest nations, its rules, data sets and economic benefits will mirror only those countries’ priorities. India, with its vast populace and expanding tech sector, was presented as a natural counterweight to that dynamic.
Previous summits had concentrated on different aspects of AI safety. Bletchley Park focused on existential risk, Seoul on governance frameworks and Paris on action plans.
In contrast, the Delhi gathering shifted attention toward questions of access, equity and who actually decides how AI is deployed in practice, not just in theory. Hosting the meeting in a developing country forced participants to confront those issues directly.
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