In February 2026 Bill Gates pulled out of delivering a keynote address at a major artificial-intelligence summit in India just hours before he was due on stage, even though he was already in the country and his attendance had been confirmed days earlier. The Gates Foundation said only that, 'to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit's key priorities,' Gates would not deliver the keynote, and that the Foundation would instead be represented by a senior executive. The withdrawal followed a newly released tranche of Epstein-related files that renewed scrutiny of Gates's past association with the financier. The episode was widely covered as a sign of the reputational pressure the Epstein files were placing on Gates's public engagements.