Sam Altman tipped to attend India AI Impact Summit in February

Altman turning up in New Delhi around the India AI Impact Summit would be another marker of how central India has become to the geopolitics of AI. Between a huge developer base, an assertive digital‑public‑infrastructure agenda and an increasingly muscular data‑protection framework, India is one of the few markets that can shape how frontier models are deployed at population scale without simply importing U.S. or Chinese defaults. A visit framed around closed‑door meetings with officials, investors and ecosystem leaders suggests OpenAI wants a direct say in how India balances openness, safety and industrial policy. ([etnownews.com](https://www.etnownews.com/technology/openai-ceo-sam-altman-likely-to-visit-india-in-feb-chatgpt-maker-expected-at-india-ai-impact-summit-2026-what-we-know-so-far-article-153497742))

For the broader race to AGI, engagement like this is less about model capabilities and more about distribution power. If OpenAI can lock in deep partnerships around government services, education and commerce built on its agent and app store ecosystem, it strengthens its position as a default AI layer in a key Global South market. Conversely, if India leans toward multi‑model or locally developed systems under its IndiaAI mission, that could dilute any single lab’s influence. Either way, Altman’s presence would underscore that the battle for AGI is as much about political alliances and regulatory access as it is about benchmark scores.