When Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi on February 19, the audience will include many of the most powerful figures in global technology. Their presence signals how central India has become to plans for artificial intelligence growth, both as a huge market and as a live testing ground.
For the companies attending, the attraction is straightforward. Building advanced AI models costs hundreds of billions of dollars. To recover that spending, firms need very large groups of paying users and enterprise clients. India's vast service sector, long called the world's back-office, now looks like the richest territory to capture.

AI Impact Summit India and the fight for a huge tech market
Global AI giants see three big consumer technology markets: the United States, China and India. China remains largely shut to most American digital platforms, especially sensitive AI tools. That leaves India and the United States as the two arenas where Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft and others can chase serious scale.
Though India is still a lower-income country, the total economic size and huge population change the equation. Its services-led economy is packed with white-collar roles, exactly where many AI tools fit best. As these firms face pressure to match revenue with soaring AI costs, India's offices look primed for AI-driven change.
AI Impact Summit India: who is flying into Delhi
The guest list for the Delhi AI Impact Summit reads like a who's who of Silicon Valley and global AI. Expected attendees include Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Microsoft President Brad Smith.
They will be joined by Meta Chief AI Scientist Alexandr Wang and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, among others. It is likely the first time such a broad collection of senior AI and chip leaders gather under one roof in India. Their physical presence also signals intent to engage closely with the Indian government.
AI Impact Summit India and India's role as a tech consumer
India has long supplied support work for overseas firms, handling tickets and back-office tasks. In 2026, that image starts to shift. AI vendors now pitch India not only as a delivery hub but as a frontline buyer and deployer of advanced systems, especially across large enterprises and public-sector projects.
For these companies, consumer users are important, but the higher-value opportunity lies with enterprises. Deals with large firms can deliver steady revenue and deeper integration. This is where AI products for coding, office work and sector-specific workflows come in, promising gains in productivity for India's extensive corporate and outsourcing industry.
AI Impact Summit India and Anthropic's push into services
Anthropic has already shaken many software-as-a-service players with its Claude AI platform. The company sells Claude Code to technology firms for programming tasks, and Claude Work to white-collar teams. Over the past year, while still losing money, Anthropic almost doubled revenue to about $9 billion and targets roughly $18 billion in 2026.
India's large IT services base makes it an appealing match for products like Claude Code. Call centres, consulting outfits and back-office providers also present prospects for Claude Cowork deployments. Reflecting these ambitions, Anthropic recently appointed Irina Ghose, formerly a Microsoft MD, to head its India business and steer local partnerships.
AI Impact Summit India and moves by Google, Microsoft and OpenAI
Rivals are not standing still. OpenAI has set up a dedicated sales arm in India and is actively pursuing corporate contracts. Google and Microsoft, which already operate major Indian campuses and engineering sites, are now layering AI offerings onto existing relationships with domestic companies and public authorities.
One recent example involves Google working with the Indian government, Chaudhary Charan Singh University and Physics Wallah. The collaboration aims to introduce AI tools into education, supporting teachers and students. Such pilots also help Google demonstrate real-world use cases at national scale, making future AI deals easier to justify.
AI Impact Summit India and the hardware and data centre race
Chip and hardware makers are eyeing another part of India's AI plans: infrastructure. The country has announced long-term ambitions to build large clusters of AI data centres. The latest Union Budget includes a 21-year tax holiday for data centre projects, designed to encourage both domestic and foreign investment.
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