AI Impact Summit: India Expected to Witness Over $200 Billion Worth of AI Investments, IT Minister Says

The India AI Impact Summit 2026, which began on February 16, entered its second day on Tuesday. During the five-day event, the government is hosting various industry leaders and technocrats, who are attending the summit to discuss the prospects of the country's AI and deep tech ecosystem. On the sidelines of the summit on Tuesday, the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that India expects to receive significant investments to accelerate AI adoption over the next two years.

India's AI and Deep Tech Ecosystem Expected to Leverage the Existing Technology Framework

Citing the Union IT minister, ANI reports that India expects to receive more than $200 billion (about Rs. 18,14,000 crore) worth of investments in the country's AI and deep tech ecosystem over the next two years. On the second day of the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, the minister reportedly said that there are interests on two fronts. First is AI investments in the country, and second is funding from venture capitalists in India's deep tech ecosystem.

The government in the past years has been backing the development of digital public infrastructure (DPI) as part of the Digital India mission, including UPI, Aadhaar, DigiLocker, and Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC).

This has led to the creation of notable technology frameworks in the country. On how the same will bolster AI adoption in India, the minister highlighted the technology framework in the country, backed by DPI, which is expected to accelerate AI adoption.

Further, the report added that the Union Minister pointed out that global tech leaders and CEOs have shown “keen interest” in investing in India, specifically in the country's growing deep tech startup ecosystem and infrastructure.

However, these are not isolated interests in India's AI ecosystem. In the past, various global tech giants have made commitments to invest in India, to tap into the large Internet-using demographic by offering cheaper plans, set up operations in the country, and build data centres across India.

Most recently, Anthropic inaugurated its first Indian office in Bengaluru, while also listing job openings to hire local talent. The US-based company also announced that India is home to the second-largest user base for its AI-powered chatbot Claude.

Recently, OpenAI also began hiring people ahead of the opening of its first office in India's New Delhi. The AI giant also plans to build data centres across the country. Similarly, in December 2025, Microsoft announced its plans to invest about $17.5 billion (roughly Rs. 1.57 lakh crore) in India over the next four years.