Bill Gates abruptly canceled his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit on Thursday morning, just hours before he was due to speak, as controversy over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein intensified following his naming in newly released U.S. Justice Department files.
The Gates Foundation announced the decision on X, stating that “after careful consideration, and to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities, Mr. Gates will not be delivering his keynote address”. The foundation offered no further explanation and did not mention the Epstein files.
Ankur Vora, president of the foundation’s Africa and India offices, will speak in Gates’s place.
The Files
The withdrawal comes weeks after the January 30 release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Justice Department. Among them was a draft email written by Epstein making explosive—and unsubstantiated—allegations about Gates.
Epstein claimed his relationship with Gates ranged from “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts with married women”.
The email was never sent. Gates’s spokesperson called the allegations “absolutely absurd and completely false,” noting that “the only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame”.
Gates himself told 9News Australia this month: “Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize. That email was never sent. The email is false. I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?”.
Days of Uncertainty
The cancellation follows days of speculation about whether Gates would appear. He is currently in India and visited Andhra Pradesh on Monday, where he discussed health, agriculture, and technology initiatives. After media reports suggested he might pull out, the foundation said Tuesday he would deliver the address as scheduled.
Thursday morning’s reversal caught organizers and attendees off guard.
A Summit Undimmed
While Gates’s withdrawal is a blow—India has pitched the five-day event as a flagship gathering to position the country as a global AI hub—the stage remains crowded with tech royalty.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are all speaking on Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron delivered addresses calling for the democratization of AI and shared approaches to innovation.
“AI must become a tool for inclusion and empowerment, particularly for the Global South,” Modi said.
Macron echoed the call, urging a shift in the AI discussion from “let’s do more” to “let’s do better together”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that the future of AI should not be “decided by a handful of countries” or left to the “whims of a few billionaires”.
The Foundation’s Commitment
The Gates Foundation stressed that its work in India continues. “The Gates Foundation remains fully committed to our work in India to advance our shared health and development goals,” the organization said.
Gates has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of Epstein’s victims. The appearance of his name in the files does not imply criminal activity. But the timing—hours before a major keynote, weeks after damaging allegations surfaced, and days after his ex-wife Melinda French Gates told NPR the document dump revived “memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage”—has turned a routine cancellation into a global story.
What Happens Next
Delegates from more than 100 countries continue their discussions through Friday, when the summit concludes with a Leaders’ Declaration expected to align GPAI Council members on responsible AI priorities. Microsoft, where Gates built his fortune, announced investment pledges to expand AI access in India and other countries.
Gates’s name will not appear on any speaker schedule. His foundation’s work will continue. But the image of the world’s fourth-richest man withdrawing from a global stage hours before he was meant to appear—over decades-old associations with a convicted sex offender—will linger longer than any keynote he might have delivered.
