Modi seeks to position India as AI hub at summit

(Patria) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday pitched his country as a central player in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem, saying the company's goal is to build technology at home while delivering it to the world, AP reported last night.

"Design and develop in India. Deliver to the world. Deliver to humanity," Modi told the assembled world leaders, tech executives and policymakers at the India Artificial Intelligence Impact Summit in New Delhi.

Modi's remarks came as India, one of the world's fastest-growing digital markets, seeks to leverage its experience in building large-scale digital public infrastructure and position itself as a cost-effective hub for AI innovation.

The summit also featured addresses from French President Emmanuel Macron, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who called for a $3 billion fund to help poorer countries build basic AI capacities, including skills, data access and affordable computing power.

"The future of AI cannot be decided by a few countries, nor left to the whims of a few billionaires," Guterres said, stressing that AI must "belong to everyone."

India seeks to scale up AI

India is using the summit to position itself as a bridge between advanced economies and the global South. Indian officials cite the country's digital identity and online payment systems as a model for deploying AI at low cost, especially in developing countries.

"We need to democratize AI. It must become a tool for inclusion and empowerment, especially for the global South," Modi said.

He later met separately with tech leaders, many of whom outlined their investment plans in India and agreed to commit to a broad set of principles for developing "inclusive and multilingual" AI.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company would collaborate with India's Tata Group on AI initiatives, including developing data center infrastructure in the country.

"We believe the democratization of AI is the only fair and safe way forward," Altman said at the meeting.

A group photo with Modi, Altman and about a dozen other tech leaders went viral when Modi invited everyone to hold hands and raise their arms together. Altman and Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, a fierce rival of OpenAI, broke the chain by not holding hands. Altman later said he was confused by what was happening.

With nearly a billion internet users, India has become a key market for global tech companies expanding their AI businesses.
Last December, Microsoft announced a $17.5 billion investment over four years to expand cloud and AI in India. This followed Google's $15 billion investment over five years, including plans for their first AI center in the country. Amazon has also pledged $35 billion by 2030, targeting AI-driven digitization.

India is also seeking up to $200 billion in data center investments in the coming years.

However, the country lags in developing its own large-scale AI model like OpenAI of the US or China's DeepSeek, citing challenges such as limited access to advanced semiconductor chips, data centers, and hundreds of local languages to learn from.

Summit faced problems

The summit opened on Monday with organizational issues, as attendees and exhibitors reported long queues and delays, with some complaining on social media that personal belongings and exhibits were stolen. Organizers later said the items were recovered.

Problems resurfaced on Wednesday when a private Indian university was expelled from the summit after a staff member presented a commercially available Chinese-made robotic dog, claiming it was an innovation of the institution.

The setbacks continued on Thursday when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates withdrew from a scheduled keynote address. No reason was given, although the Gates Foundation said the move was intended "to ensure the focus remains on the key priorities of the AI Summit."

Gates is facing questions about his association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.