Gates Foundation has confirmed on Thursday that its chairman Bill Gates will not be attending the India AI Impact Summit 2026. Gates was scheduled to deliver a keynote address on the fourth day of the summit.
“After careful consideration, and to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities, Mr. Gates will not be delivering his keynote address. The Gates Foundation will be represented by Ankur Vora, President of Africa and India Offices, who will speak later today at the Summit,” reads the official statement. Follow LIVE updates on the summit here
“The Gates Foundation remains fully committed to our work in India to advance our shared health and development goals,” it added further.
Earlier this week it was reported that Gates will be skipping the AI Summit during his visit to India. However, the foundation denied the reports and stated that the former Microsoft CEO will deliver the keynote address as scheduled.
Bill Gates arrived in India earlier this week for a visit to Andhra Pradesh. During this, he met with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan and senior officials of the Government of Andhra Pradesh as they inaugurated several projects in the state which have been supported by the Gates Foundation.
Row over Epstein Files mention
Gates’ absence also comes amid the public outrage caused by the mention of the former Microsoft CEO in the Epstein Files.
Bill Gates is among the many influential people mentioned in the newly release tranche of Epstein files which contains over three million documents.
In the files, emails written by Epstein claim that Bill Gates had come to him to facilitate trysts with married women and to get medication to treat an STI from “sex with Russian girls.”
“To add insult to the injury, you then implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda and the description of your penis,” outlined the email from Epstein.
A spokesperson for Bill Gates has denied any involvement and stated that the claims against him are “false and absurd.”
“These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” a spokesperson told NPR.
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