2026-02-19T13:16:18.162Z
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has canceled his attendance at the India AI Impact Summit.
- He left just hours before he was scheduled to give his keynote address.
- The Gates Foundation said the decision was made to “stay focused” on the summit’s priorities.
Bill Gates skipped the India AI Impact Summit on Thursday, hours before he was scheduled to give the keynote address.
The Microsoft co-founder has made the decision to cancel appearances at high-profile events following increased attention to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement provided to Business Insider, the Gates Foundation said, “After careful consideration, Mr. Gates will not deliver the keynote address at the AI Summit to maintain focus on the AI Summit’s key priorities.”
The spokesperson added that Anker Vora, the foundation’s chief strategy officer and head of its Africa and India office, spoke on his behalf.
“The Gates Foundation remains committed to our work to advance our common health and development goals in India,” they added.
The correspondence between Mr. Gates and Mr. Epstein is facing intense scrutiny after the Justice Department released 3 million emails related to the late sex offender. One of the emails, with the subject line “Bill,” suggested that Mr. Gates had requested that his now ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, be given drugs to treat a sexually transmitted disease.
“These claims are completely absurd and completely false,” a spokesperson for Gates told Business Insider in a statement earlier this month. “The only thing these documents show is Mr. Epstein’s dissatisfaction with not having a continuing relationship with Mr. Gates and the extent to which he will be enmeshed and defamed.”
