India gets $250B infra, $20B VC pledges at AI Summit: Vaishnaw

India secured over $270 billion in investment pledges at the AI Impact Summit 2026, said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. He highlighted the world's confidence in India's AI role and the event's 'grand success' and record student participation.

India AI Summit Garners Massive Investment Pledges

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said India received "a lot of" investment pledges at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 with over USD 250 billion under infra-related investments and about USD 20 billion under Venture Capital and deep tech investments.

"The numbers are important, but what is important is that the world has confidence in India's role in the new AI age," Vaishnaw, who holds the portfolios of Information and Broadcasting, Electronics and IT, and Railways, said.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital today, the Information and Technology minister said, "We also have a lot of investment pledges...I think the number is growing each day, it's already crossed USD 250 billion for the infra-related investments and about USD 20 billion for the VC deep tech investments which have been committed by investors. This is a very important sign for us..."

A 'Grand Success' with Global Participation

He said that the AI Summit was a "major success" and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Manav AI' vision was highlighted at the AI Summit. Further, he noted that over 2.5 lakh students participated in the mega event, setting a Guinness World Record for student participation.

Talking about the key takeaways from the Summit, Vaishnaw said, "This AI Impact Summit has been a grand success on many fronts...About more than 5 lakh visitors have enjoyed this exhibition, learnt a lot, interacted with many experts from the world. We had practically every major AI player in the world participating in large numbers."

"We had so many startups getting the opportunity to showcase their work. The quality of discussion was phenomenal. If you look at the ministerial dialogue, the Leaders' Plenary, the main inauguration function, the summit, the quality of participation, the quality of dialogue was phenomenal," he added.

Global Endorsement and Leadership

"If you ask every major policy leader in the world and I had so many meetings today, each and every one is surprised how India put together the entire AI industry coming forward. This was phenomenal, and unprecedented. This has not happened anytime in the past. So this is a major, major achievement, and this kind of achievement shows how India can be leading the thought process," he said.

Stating that the previous action summit had about 60 signatories in the final declaration he said, "By the time we close the summit tomorrow, we believe that it will cross 80. All the major countries have already signed."

'Sovereign Bouquet of Models' and a Frugal Approach

Vaishnaw said there "very strong endorsement" of the government's strategy of working across five layers of the AI stack and building a "sovereign bouquet of models".

Industry leaders, he said, were surprised at the quality of models developed by Indian engineers and researchers despite limited resources compared with frontier labs. "With such frugal resources, our engineers and researchers have produced such good models, which gives huge endorsement to our efforts," he said.

Future Roadmap: AI Mission 2.0 and Viksit Bharat

The minister said that during the course of the 5 days, he had met with many young innovators who have done so much work in AI and that it was "very encouraging" to see the optimism of the youth in the new world of tech.

"We are a very open-minded government. We believe in taking your feedback, we believe in working with you towards the goal of Viksit Bharat," he said.

Further he said that India will soon start working on AI Mission 2.0.

The Minister said the foundation stone for a new semiconductor plant in Uttar Pradesh would be laid soon and the commercial production from the Micron facility is set to begin on February 28. ."...commercial procuduction will begun in Micron's largesst facility of micron practically it is very large more than 10 cricket fields,"

"All these are steps methodically moving towards the foundation that the PM is laying for young gen for Viksit Bharat," he said.

"Our PM is laying the foundation for the country which will be develeopned nation by 2047." (ANI)

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