Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Minister of Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw during the India AI Impact Summit, at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on February 18, 2026. Photo: PMO via PTI Photo
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the AI Impact Summit on Thursday (February 19, 2026), joined by fellow world leaders and senior tech executives. Mr. Modi’s address will be followed by keynote presentations by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Dennis Hassabis, and Reliance Industries Limited, chairman and managing director, Mukesh Ambani. The keynote speakers include Gates Foundation Chair Bill Gates, and Microsoft president Brad Smith.
India AI Summit 2026 Day 3 Highlights
The event has drawn strong crowds, and has been positioned for months as India’s flagship AI event by the government. It follows similar multilateral summits in the U.K., France, and South Korea. President of France Emmanuel Macron will be in attendance, as will Spanish President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
Expo extended
The AI Impact Summit’s expo has been extended by one day, to Saturday (February 21, 2026), so that attendees can visit with more flexible security arrangements after all the multilateral events at the venue wind up, IT Secretary S. Krishnan said in a press conference on Wednesday (February 18, 2026). Students and professionals, who have not been able to attend on the weekdays, would be able to come easily, Mr. Krishnan said.
Over 400 exhibitors, from startups, large corporate firms and government entities to researchers, have their own booths at the summit.
The summit has attracted massive crowds over the first three days, which led to acute inconvenience on Monday (February 16, 2026), when large parts of the venue were closed for public access. Three days in, attendance remains strong, leading to this extension. It is unclear if all exhibitors will be able to stay back through Saturday (February 21, 2026).
The expo will be closed on Thursday (February 19, 2026) in view of the plenary session with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other world leaders. It will reopen on Friday (February 20, 2026).
Published – February 18, 2026 09:50 pm IST
