PM Modi Promotes India As Global AI Hub At Delhi Summit Amid Major Tech Investment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday promoted India as a key global hub for artificial intelligence at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.

Speaking to world leaders and technology executives, Modi said India wants to build AI technology at home and deliver it globally.

“Design and develop in India. Deliver to the world. Deliver to humanity,” he said.

The summit was attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

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Guterres called for a $3 billion global fund to help developing countries build AI skills, data systems and computing infrastructure. He said AI should not be controlled by a small group of countries or individuals.

India, which has nearly 1 billion internet users, is positioning itself as a bridge between advanced economies and developing nations. Officials say India’s digital ID and online payment systems can serve as a model for affordable AI deployment.

During the summit, PM Modi met several global tech leaders to discuss investments and collaboration in “inclusive and multilingual” AI systems.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, announced plans to work with the Tata Group on AI projects, including data centre development in India.

Altman and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, also drew attention after a summit photo moment where both briefly avoided holding hands during a group gesture led by Modi. Altman later said he was confused about the moment.

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Global tech companies have announced large investments in India:

• Microsoft plans to invest $17.5 billion over four years in cloud and AI infrastructure.

• Google has committed $15 billion over five years, including its first AI hub in India.

• Amazon has pledged $35 billion by 2030 to support AI-driven digitisation.

India is also seeking up to $200 billion in data centre investments.

However, India currently does not have a large-scale AI model comparable to OpenAI in the United States or China’s DeepSeek. Challenges include limited access to advanced semiconductor chips and the need to train AI systems in hundreds of local languages.

The summit faced several challenges.

There were long lines and delays on opening day, and some attendees reported missing items, which organisers later said were recovered.

A private Indian university called Galgotias was removed from the event after displaying a Chinese-made robotic dog while claiming it as its own innovation.

Bill Gates also withdrew from a scheduled keynote address. No official reason was provided, but his foundation said the decision was made to keep the focus on the summit’s priorities.