Published Feb 17, 2026 | 3:39 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 17, 2026 | 3:39 PM
Bill Gates.
Synopsis: Contradicting reports have emerged over the participation of Bill Gates as a keynote speaker at the India AI Impact Summit. A PTI report noted that government sources suggested Gates will not attend the summit, which may be due to his name figuring in files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. ANI reported that he will be attending the India AI Impact Summit and deliver a keynote as scheduled.
Contradicting reports have emerged over the participation of American billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates as a keynote speaker at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
According to PTI, government sources said that he will not attend the meeting. However, quoting a Gates Foundation spokesperson, ANI reported that he will be attending the India AI Impact Summit and deliver a keynote as scheduled.
PTI report noted that government sources suggested Gates will not attend the summit, which may be due to his name figuring in files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Meanwhile, the official website of the summit no longer features Gates’ name among the attendees.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, 16 February, inaugurated India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, which is said to be the first international AI summit hosted in the Global South. The summit is scheduled from 16 to 20 February alongside the India AI Impact Expo 2026.
On Monday, Gates’ visit to Andhra Pradesh drew condemnation because of his ties to Epstein. Gates had received a royal welcome in Andhra Pradesh from Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and several cabinet members.
Jeffrey Epstein was a wealthy American financier who became the central figure in one of the biggest sex-trafficking cases in recent US history.
His list of connections spanned some of the most powerful and well-known figures across media, cinema, business, politics, academia, and more across the world.
In 2008, he pleaded guilty in Florida to procuring a minor for prostitution and served 13 months in jail under a highly controversial plea deal that granted him immunity from federal prosecution at the time.
In July 2019, federal prosecutors in New York charged him with sex trafficking of minors, alleging he operated a scheme in which dozens of girls, some as young as 14, were abused at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach between 2002 and 2005.
Epstein died in a New York jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial; his death was ruled a suicide.
The relationship between Gates and Epstein first came to public light in 2019 after Epstein’s second arrest.
Gates met with Epstein after his 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution. The two met on multiple occasions starting in 2011, according to the New York Times.
At the time, Gates denied any impropriety and told the paper that he “regrets ever meeting with [Epstein]” and that they only ever discussed philanthropy.
