Delhi AI Summit Records 250k Student Pledges, Announces $50 B Global South Investment, University Fallout

Updated 2026-02-18 09:06:58+00:00 (10 articles)

Image: Anthropic

Figure 1. Top 20 countries by share of global Claude.ai use. India accounts for 5.8% of global Claude.ai consumer use, second only to the United States. Bars show each country’s share of total conversations observed November 13–20, 2025. India highlighted in blue; N = 975, 160 conversations globally. (Anthropic) Source Full size
Image: BBC

Reuters Source Full size
Image: BBC

Reuters Source Full size
Image: BBC

Getty Images Source Full size
Image: Anthropic

Figure 2. Share of India's Claude.ai use by state. Map shows each state’s share of India’s total Claude.ai use. Top states: Maharashtra (15.5%), Tamil Nadu (13.2%), Karnataka (12.7%), Delhi (10.5%). Gray regions indicate insufficient data. November 2025 data. Shapefile for the map from Natural Earth. (Anthropic) Source Full size

Summit Highlights Inclusive AI Calls and Record Student Commitment Mitesh Khapra of AI4Bharat warned that without data sovereignty AI could jeopardize health, education and government services, urging equal performance across demographics [1]. Thiago Rached, co‑founder of a Brazilian ed‑tech, stressed that AI must narrow, not widen, employability gaps and protect data [1]. Infosys co‑founder Kris Gopalakrishnan argued India’s vast developer pool and application scale could place it among the world’s top three AI nations [1]. The event set a Guinness World Record with 250,946 student pledges for responsible AI, far exceeding the 5,000‑pledge target, a result Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s school outreach [1].

Microsoft Commits $50 B to AI in Global South, Emphasizes India Projects Microsoft announced at the Delhi summit its goal to invest $50 billion in AI across the Global South by 2030, positioning the pledge as on‑track [2]. The company highlighted $17.5 billion of AI projects launched in India during the previous year, underscoring a strategy to deepen presence in the fast‑growing market [2]. The “Global South” was defined as lower‑income, emerging nations primarily in the southern hemisphere, framing the investment as a development‑focused effort [2].

Operational Glitches and Safety Skepticism Mark Summit Proceedings The opening day saw long queues and confusion, and early reports incorrectly suggested Bill Gates would skip his keynote; the Gates Foundation later confirmed his scheduled appearance [3]. Experts such as Dame Wendy Hall expressed doubt that the summit would produce concrete AI safety measures, noting the term “safety” was removed from the event title after the 2023 UK summit [3]. Reporting also highlighted India’s reliance on low‑paid data trainers, with an average annual salary of 480,000 rupees, and language gaps where major US chatbots cover only half of India’s 22 official languages, while Google’s Gemini supports nine [3].

Claude.ai Usage Concentrated in Indian IT Hubs, Shows High Productivity Gains Data from November 2025 shows India generated 58,098 Claude.ai sessions, 5.8 % of global usage, ranking second after the United States [4]. Per‑capita adoption placed India 101st of 116 countries, indicating activity is driven by population size rather than widespread individual use [4]. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Delhi together produced over half of the country’s Claude.ai activity, reflecting the concentration in major IT centers [4]. Software‑related tasks accounted for 45.2 % of Indian AI activity—the world’s highest share—and users compressed 3.8‑hour tasks to 14.8 minutes (≈15× speedup), allocating 51.3 % of usage to work and granting AI a delegation score of 3.60, signalling strong trust in autonomous assistance [4].

Galgotias University Ordered to Vacate Expo After Robot Origin Dispute Galgotias University was instructed to leave the AI Expo after investigators determined its “Orion” robot was a rebranded Unitree Go2 from China, sparking backlash over the misrepresentation [1]. The university’s removal was immediate, reflecting the summit’s strict enforcement of authenticity standards [1].

Sources

Timeline

2023 – The UK AI safety summit removes “safety” from its title, prompting scholars like Dame Wendy Hall to warn that future meetings may struggle to produce concrete risk‑curbing measures[1].

Dec 9, 2025 – Microsoft announces a US$17.5 billion investment over CY 2026‑2029, its largest in Asia, to build a new hyperscale datacentre in Hyderabad (live mid‑2026), expand sovereign cloud services, and double AI skilling to 20 million people by 2030[9].

Dec 10, 2025 – Satya Nadella says, “I am thrilled about the data‑centre capacity coming live in India,” and confirms the US$17.5 billion commitment after meeting Prime Minister Modi the day before[8].

Dec 10, 2025 – Amazon and Microsoft pledge a combined US$52.5 billion for India; Amazon will invest US$35 billion by 2030 and Microsoft US$17.5 billion, while Modi remarks, “When it comes to AI, the world is optimistic about India”[2].

Dec 28, 2025 – Bengaluru climbs to 5th globally among AI ecosystems, receives a ₹600 crore deep‑tech fund and a ₹1,000 crore LEAP programme, and sees deep‑tech start‑ups attract $1.5 billion in 2025 despite a 37 % dip in overall funding[6].

Dec 30, 2025 – The Principal Scientific Advisor’s white paper calls for open access to AI compute, datasets and tools, urges integration of Aadhaar and UPI, and warns that AI data‑centre electricity use could rise to nearly 3 % of national consumption by 2030[5].

2025 – The AI Action Summit in Paris ends in an “ugly power struggle” among Western nations, highlighted by US Vice‑President JD Vance’s assertive speech, underscoring the push for Global‑South venues like India’s 2026 summit[1].

Feb 16, 2026 – India generates 5.8 % of global Claude.ai conversations, concentrated in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Delhi; per‑capita adoption ranks 101st of 116 countries, yet users achieve ≈15× productivity gains and assign AI a high delegation score of 3.6/5[10].

Feb 17, 2026 – The AI Impact Summit opens in Delhi amid long queues; initial reports claim Bill Gates will not speak, but the Gates Foundation confirms his keynote, marking a shift of AI policy leadership from the US‑Europe to the Global South[1].

Feb 18, 2026 – The summit records 250,946 student pledges for responsible AI, far exceeding its 5,000‑pledge target; Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw attributes the success to Prime Minister Modi’s outreach to schools[3].

Feb 18, 2026 – AI4Bharat founder Mitesh Khapra warns, “Without control over data, AI in health, education and government could pose a challenge,” while Infosys co‑founder Kris Gopalakrishnan asserts India can rank among the world’s top three AI nations thanks to its large developer pool[3].

Feb 18, 2026 – Galgotias University is ordered to vacate the AI Expo after a controversy reveals its “Orion” robot is actually a Chinese Unitree Go2, highlighting geopolitical sensitivities in AI showcases[3].

Feb 18, 2026 – Microsoft declares a target to spend US$50 billion on AI in the Global South by 2030, citing its US$17.5 billion India projects as a stepping stone toward that goal[4].

Mid‑2026 (planned) – Microsoft’s Hyderabad hyperscale cloud region goes live, delivering sovereign public‑cloud services and bolstering India’s AI‑first infrastructure[9][8].

2030 (planned) – Amazon aims to complete its US$35 billion investment in India, targeting AI‑driven digitisation, export growth to $80 billion and the creation of one million jobs; Microsoft’s US$17.5 billion India program and broader $50 billion Global‑South pledge together underpin India’s $1.2 billion sovereign AI Mission and its ambition to become a top‑three AI nation[2][7][9].