NEW DELHI — Bill Gates pulled out of India's AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote on Thursday, as scrutiny over his ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein intensified following the release of U.S. Justice Department email.
The abrupt withdrawal of Microsoft's co-founder dealt a fresh blow to a flagship event already marred by organizational lapses, a robot row and complaints of traffic chaos.
The six-day event still notched more than $200 billion in investment pledges for AI infrastructure in India.
Gates' cancellation follows the release of emails last month by the DOJ that included communication between late financier and convicted sex offender Epstein and the Gates Foundation's staff.
The foundation said the billionaire will not deliver his address "to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit's key priorities." Only days ago, the foundation had dismissed rumors of his absence and insisted he was on track to attend.
The foundation's chief strategy officer and Africa and India chief Ankur Vora spoke instead of Gates.
A representative for the philanthropic organization, started by Gates and his then-wife in 2000, did not respond to a Reuters query on whether the withdrawal was linked to scrutiny over the Epstein files.
Gates has said the relationship was confined to philanthropy-related discussions and that it was a mistake for him to meet the sex offender.
He was among the top tech leaders due to attend the event among the likes of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
Gates' absence followed another high-profile cancellation by Nvidia's Jensen Huang earlier on Saturday, which added to a difficult opening for a summit billed as the first major AI forum in the Global South, where India has sought to position itself as a leading voice in worldwide AI governance.
