Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has withdrawn from attending the upcoming India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, just two days before the high-profile event is set to begin.
Huang was listed as a confirmed participant on the official website until late Friday night and was expected to be one of the headline speakers at the summit, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
In a brief communication, Nvidia’s India said Huang would not be travelling due to “unforeseen circumstances”. No further details were provided.
Huang’s absence is seen as a setback for the event, which is being positioned as one of the largest global congregations focused on artificial intelligence.
He was scheduled to:
Address the media in New Delhi
Participate in high-level discussions on AI infrastructure and policy
Engage with policymakers and industry leaders
As CEO of Nvidia, Huang has been at the forefront of the global AI boom, with the chipmaker emerging as a critical supplier of high-performance GPUs powering generative AI systems.
Despite Huang’s withdrawal, the summit is set to witness the participation of over 20 heads of state and more than 50 international ministers, along with leading global technology executives.
Among the major tech leaders expected:
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind
Brad Smith of Microsoft
Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm
Bill Gates, representing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Political leaders expected to attend include:
Emmanuel Macron, president of France
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, president of Sri Lanka
Tshering Tobgay, prime minister of Bhutan
Petteri Orpo, prime minister of Finland
Ministerial delegations from more than 45 countries are also expected to participate.
Top Indian business leaders likely to attend include:
Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries
N. Chandrasekaran of Tata Sons
Nandan Nilekani of Infosys
Salil Parekh of Infosys
K. Krithivasan of Tata Consultancy Services
The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum is also bringing a large delegation of senior executives.
While the official reason remains limited to “unforeseen circumstances”, Huang’s last-minute withdrawal has raised questions given Nvidia’s central role in the global AI ecosystem and India’s push to build domestic AI capacity.
Even so, with a broad lineup of global political leaders, technology CEOs and international organisations, the summit is still expected to shape discussions around AI policy, innovation and governance — framed around its stated pillars of People, Planet and Progress.
