The global epicenter of the artificial intelligence sector has shifted to New Delhi this week as the world’s most influential technology executives arrive for the AI Impact Summit. The event signals a definitive move by Silicon Valley to cement its presence in India, a nation increasingly viewed not just as a consumer market, but as the critical engine for the next phase of AI development.

The summit’s attendee list reads as a “who’s who” of the generative AI era. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis are all scheduled to participate in high-level dialogues. While Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was forced to withdraw at the last moment due to unforeseen circumstances, his absence has done little to dampen the atmosphere of high-stakes diplomacy and industrial expansion.

For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit represents the culmination of a multi-year strategy to reposition India as a global tech superpower. The government has aggressively courted multinational corporations, deploying a “red carpet” policy that includes $18 billion in incentives for semiconductor manufacturing and a push for localized production from firms like Apple. This charm offensive is yielding results; the summit is widely expected to serve as a backdrop for major announcements regarding infrastructure investment and strategic partnerships.

The industry’s focus on India is driven by three primary pillars: infrastructure, user acquisition, and a sophisticated talent pipeline.

On the infrastructure front, the demand for localized data centers is surging. Tech giants are hungry for the computing power necessary to sustain AI models, following the lead of Amazon, Microsoft, and Intel, all of whom committed to Indian AI infrastructure projects late last year. This push for self-reliance in the tech stack aligns with broader global trends where nations are racing to secure their technological foundations. This is evidenced by similar strategic moves in the West, such as when the US launched the $12bn Project Vault for Critical Minerals to insulate high-tech supply chains from geopolitical volatility.

In terms of market share, India has already become a primary battleground for user dominance. With no major domestic rival to U.S.-based chatbots, OpenAI and Perplexity are aggressively scaling their user bases, leveraging India’s tech-savvy population to gather the diverse datasets essential for refining large language models.

Perhaps most significant is the evolution of India’s role in the global labor hierarchy. The nation is transitioning from a back-office hub to an “AI talent factory.” Global Capability Centers (GCCs), offshore hubs for international firms, are undergoing a radical transformation. According to data from ANSR, over 60% of GCCs established in the last two years are focused on AI and digital engineering. This trend is expected to accelerate, with 80% of upcoming centers projected to be AI-led.

The shift is also climbing the corporate ladder. The emergence of “Chief AI Officer” roles within Indian operations suggests that New Delhi is no longer just providing engineering support, but is increasingly responsible for high-level strategic leadership in the AI space.

As the AI Impact Summit unfolds, the message from both New Delhi and Silicon Valley is clear: the future of artificial intelligence is inextricably linked to India’s ability to scale its infrastructure and mobilize its vast intellectual capital. For the global technology sector, the summit is not merely a networking event, but a validation of India’s status as an indispensable pillar of the modern digital economy.