The Trump administration “is very focused on encouraging the success of AI around the world. So this is an important opportunity and a strong showing for the U.S. government,” Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade William Kimmitt said at an event in Washington this month.
American companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta, are announcing billions of dollars in investments in India this week — stealing a march on the Chinese, as Beijing is only sending a small delegation because the event clashes with Chinese New Year.
The U.S. delegation is led by White House tech policy director Michael Kratsios, whereas Vice President JD Vance headed the last summit in Paris. On Thursday — the day world leaders including Indian PM Narendra Modi, Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are meeting in New Delhi — President Donald Trump is in Washington to hold the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace.
That clash has already drawn former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair away from India, where he had been due to speak. His think tank, the Tony Blair Institute, now bills former U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (an adviser to Microsoft and Anthropic) and former U.K. Finance Minister George Osborne (managing director at OpenAI) on its lineup.
The EU, meanwhile, wants both to flex its position as a global regulator and to show it’s open to attract investment. That tension has been on display in recent months as EU authorities implemented the bloc’s flagship AI law while simultaneously rolling back safety provisions through a “simplification package,” after complaints from European companies that the law was too burdensome.
EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s representative at the summit, will “emphasize the EU’s ambition to accelerate AI deployment, scale innovation and work with trusted partners such as India to ensure AI remains human-centric, secure and aligned with democratic values,” the Commission’s tech department said ahead of the event.