The U.S.–India Strategic Partnership Forum hosted U.S. Ambassador to India and Special Envoy to South and Central Asia Sergio Gor at its first official engagement on February 18 during the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.

The high-level luncheon was chaired by Shantanu Narayen, Vice Chair of USISPF and Chair and CEO of Adobe. The session brought together senior industry leaders including Brad Smith, Vice-Chairman of Microsoft; Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst; Maeve Culloty, President and CEO of HPE Financial Services; Sachit Ahuja, Co-President of Tillman Global Holdings; Bipul Sinha, CEO of Rubrik; Umesh Sachdev, CEO of Uniphore; Raj Koneru, CEO; Salil Parekh, CEO and Managing Director of Infosys; Sumant Sinha, Chairman and CEO of ReNew; Balkrishna Goenka, Chairman of Welspun World; Manoj Menda, Chair of the Supervisory Board of RMZ; and Aparna Bawa, Chief Operating Officer of Zoom.

Senior executives from USISPF board member companies including the Aditya Birla Group, Essar, HCLTech, Mastercard, and Google also participated, along with representatives of other multinational firms with significant investments across the U.S.–India corridor.

According to a statement issued by USISPF on February 18, the discussion covered a broad range of topics, including U.S.–India strategic and defense ties, the “recent trade success, resilient supply chain partnerships, creating trusted digital corridors, and the energy and trade partnership.”

Reflecting on the roundtable, Ambassador Gor posted on X: “Great conversation with CEO’s and executives from 50+ companies, including Adobe, Microsoft, Amazon, Master Card, General Catalyst, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. We focused on U.S. leadership in AI, emerging technologies, and innovation. The Global AI summit in New Delhi is underway in full force. Thanks to USISPF for hosting.”

Taneja highlighted India’s growing role in artificial intelligence. “What’s happening in India in AI has the potential to be revolutionary. The talent, infrastructure, and policy ambition are converging at exactly the right moment,” he said adding “We are bullish on India’s growth story and see significant opportunity to invest across all of our key sectors, including tech, healthcare, defense, energy, and financial services. The India-U.S. partnership is core to unlocking the next phase of global growth, particularly as AI reshapes industries and economies.”

In his opening remarks, Narayen emphasized the importance of sustained public–private collaboration to advance “responsible, scalable, and trusted artificial intelligence across economies.”

He added, “The U.S.–India partnership truly exemplifies the spirit of this Summit — countries with shared goals working together to turn technological progress into opportunity for people everywhere. Our strengths are highly complementary. India brings scale, world-class talent, digital public infrastructure, and a vibrant startup ecosystem.”

He noted that the United States contributes advanced research institutions, deep capital markets, and leadership in compute and semiconductors. “Together, we can harness the power of AI to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time and unlock unprecedented opportunities for economic and societal advancement,” he said.

President and CEO of USISPF, Mukesh Aghi, congratulated Ambassador Gor on his leadership in advancing the U.S.–India trade agreement and expressed confidence in continued collaboration to strengthen economic and strategic ties.

He said, “Few of Ambassadors have had the impact that Ambassador Gor has had in his first month in office. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Gor always had the reputation of being man of action, and within no time, we have witnessed the framework deal announced in under a month of him being at Roosevelt House in New Delhi, adding the appointment of one of President Trump’s most trusted and able lieutenants to lead the relationship with India, sends a clear signal on the huge opportunity for strategic and trade partnership that lies before both countries.

“This week, we need to build on the discussion at the summit in order to accelerate our commercial partnership, to witness enhanced capital flows, more jobs, knowledge transfer, and developing the technologies that will define the next decade,” Aghi added.

USISPF is an official partner of the India AI Impact Summit, in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. As an official partner, USISPF is leading what it describes as the largest U.S. industry delegation to India, comprising more than 120 CEOs and senior global leaders. The participation reflects the growing momentum in U.S.–India cooperation on artificial intelligence, trusted technology ecosystems, and next-generation digital infrastructure.

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