Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did not attend the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, which ran from February 16 to 20, after falling ill following three consecutive weeks of travel, the company said. His absence was confirmed before the event opened, with the company’s India communications agency MSL citing “unforeseen circumstances” in an email to media.
Nvidia later clarified through its South Asia Managing Director Vishal Dhupar that Huang had caught a bug and was unwell. “Jensen has travelled for three straight weeks, he caught a bug, he is under the weather,” Dhupar said to a question on the CEO’s absence.
Huang had been scheduled to deliver a keynote address and hold media engagements in New Delhi ahead of the summit’s opening ceremony, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was widely considered the highest-profile tech executive expected at the event.
However, he couldn’t attend, and in place of Huang, Executive Vice President Jay Puri led the company’s delegation at the summit. Dhupar confirmed this during a virtual press briefing, telling reporters, “”We hope he is well soon, but we are delighted that we have Jay Puri leading a delegation to come here in India and celebrate this very important week where the India AI impact summit will demonstrate the power of India.”
Nvidia also hosted 15 sessions at the summit covering topics from open-source models to agentic and physical AI, and over 100 Nvidia partners exhibited their work at the event.
A Summit Still Packed with Global Names
Huang’s absence did not thin out the summit’s overall lineup. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei were among those present, alongside ministers and senior officials from more than 45 countries.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Lula da Silva also attended, with the summit bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers to discuss AI innovation, governance, compute infrastructure, and real-world applications.
Despite the CEO’s no-show, Nvidia’s business activity in India was still visible throughout the summit. It was also noted that Nvidia is working with Indian companies on large investments in AI infrastructure and collaborating with software firms to develop multiple AI use cases.
What Nvidia Absence Meant for the Summit
Nvidia’s chips sit at the center of the global AI boom, as it powers data centers used by tech companies, startups, and governments worldwide. Huang’s presence had generated considerable anticipation in the weeks before the event, and Dhupar acknowledged the disappointment on the ground, saying that attendees everywhere were asking about the CEO’s whereabouts.
The summit’s broader goals to position India as a major AI player and bridging the global AI divide, particularly for developing nations, continued without him, but his absence removed a voice that may have carried considerable weight in conversations around infrastructure and investment.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is one of the largest AI-focused gatherings the country has hosted, and this edition drew significant international attention. Whether Huang will make a separate visit to India following his recovery has not been confirmed by the company.
