Bill Gates, Chair of the Gates Foundation, will attend the India AI Impact Summit 2026 and deliver his keynote address as planned, a Gates Foundation spokesperson has reportedly confirmed to ANI. This latest statement pushes back against reports that the tech billionaire had been quietly dropped from the event’s official lineup. At the time of writing, his name is still not showing up in the attendee list.
Gates’ name had disappeared from the summit website’s “Global Visionaries” section without any official explanation, sparking widespread speculation that he had either withdrawn or been excluded. The development came despite Gates recently travelling to India, arriving in Andhra Pradesh on February 16, where he met senior ministers and reviewed technology-driven governance initiatives – activities closely aligned with the summit’s own agenda.
The disappearance of Gates’ name from the attendee list came amid renewed scrutiny of his previous relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which has drawn significant public backlash in India in recent weeks. Many in India criticised Gates’ inclusion at the summit, while Gates himself has declared that he ‘regrets every moment’ he spent with Epstein.
Gates was also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Modi during the summit – a bilateral meeting with implications beyond the conference floor, given the Gates Foundation’s deep partnerships with the Indian government across health and development sectors. The summit, the first global AI summit to be hosted in the Global South, runs from February 16 to 20 at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
No official explanation has been issued by summit organisers regarding the removal of Gates’ name from the website.
