From shaping global AI rules to creating millions of jobs, India’s AI ambition is drawing rare consensus from global power centres. UN chief Antonio Guterres has praised India for assuming leadership of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, confirming his participation and calling AI one of the most critical challenges facing international relations today. Hosted in New Delhi, the summit will link global governance, capacity building and inclusion through the Global Digital Compact. At the same time, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said AI data centres could replicate the internet era employment boom in India, generating vast upstream and downstream jobs across construction, design, supply chains and digital startups. With Budget 2026 offering long term tax incentives and tech giants investing billions, India is emerging as the AI backbone of the Global South, combining diplomacy, infrastructure and economic scale in a single strategic push.