At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, global tech executives and policymakers highlighted AI’s transformative potential, warning that uneven adoption risks widening global disparities. Speakers emphasized infrastructure, skills, and governance as crucial for ensuring AI drives inclusive growth and innovation worldwide.

Microsoft said it is on track to commit US$50 billion by the end of the decade to expand artificial intelligence in countries across the Global South, with new initiatives aimed at infrastructure, skills development and inclusive AI capabilities, company executives announced at the India AI Impact Summit.

This week, two of the industry’s most powerful voices laid out starkly different visions for where artificial intelligence is headed — and how fast. Both spoke at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, but in separate keynotes. Taken together, their remarks revealed a deepening divide at the heart of the AI world: what the next frontier actually looks like, and whether humanity is years or decades away from reaching it.

Uber Technologies Inc. announced on February 18, 2026, that it will invest more than US$100 million to develop specialized charging infrastructure for autonomous vehicles (AVs), marking a significant pivot as the company moves to own physical assets and secure its robotaxi future.

OpenAI has designated the Tata Group as its foundational partner for a major sovereign AI push in India, positioning the conglomerate’s HyperVault unit as the first domestic anchor for the global Stargate infrastructure project.

The rules of winning in AI are changing, and one of the semiconductor industry’s most prominent executives is calling time on the old playbook.