Bill Gates has cancelled his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 to ensure the focus remains on the event's priorities. Ankur Vora will represent the Gates Foundation, which reaffirmed its commitment to advancing health and development goals in India.
Terming the visit of Bill Gates, Chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as a significant moment for Andhra Pradesh, TDP MP Kesineni Sivanath (Chinni) on Tuesday said the engagement would give a major boost to the state's development initiatives.
"Bill Gates is attending the AI Impact Summit. He will be delivering his keynote as scheduled," the Gates Foundation posted on its social media platform X.
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, along with Chief Minister Chandrababu, visited an agricultural field in Undavalli on Monday. During the visit, they examined produce grown using natural farming practices.
YSRCP spokesperson and former MLA TJR Sudhakar Babu raised questions over the visit, asking what tangible benefits it would bring to the people of the state.
A spokesperson for Gates had shunned the allegations earlier. But they resurfaced as a massive trove of 3.5 million pages of Epstein files were released by the US Department of Justice on Friday (local time).
The newly released documents contain an email dated October 21, 2009, sent by publicist Peggy Siegal to Jeffrey Epstein right after she left the Maxwell's party, which she said was also attended by former President Bill Clinton and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Bill Gates, through a video message, said, " It's an honour to send my greetings, as India celebrates its Republic Day. Republic Day is a moment to reflect on the extraordinary promise Indian made to itself in 1950 to build a nation where opportunity expands, knowledge empowers, and progress
"We expect about over 100 global AI leaders, including CXOs, CSOs, leading academics and other thinkers in the space, we are having a large number of high impact events, both in terms of pre events, which are going on even as we speak," he said.
Upon being asked by the media about the newly released images by the Oversight Committee that featured Trump, Bill Clinton and Steve Bannon, the US President said, "I haven't seen them, but I mean, everybody knew this man. He was all over Palm Beach."
The Democratic members of the US House Oversight Committee on Friday (local time) released 19 previously unseen photographs from the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's estate, depicting prominent individuals including current US President Donald Trump, former US President Bill