Oliver Conway

He cancelled his keynote address after growing scrutiny over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

I heard more about his absence from our technology editor Zoe Kleinman, who's at the summit in Delhi.

It's been a big surprise because there were rumours that he was going to pull out, which were then denied.

And I know he's here in India.

He's in the country and he's been visiting tech hubs this week.

So for it to be announced by the Gates Foundation, really with a couple of hours notice is quite extraordinary.

Now, they haven't said anything.

that it has anything to do with his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

But reading between the lines and standing here in a massive press room with the assorted media, it's quite clear that that's what everybody really wants to talk to him about.

And the reason that was actually given was that he didn't want to distract from the summit.

And I think quite possibly it would have been a distraction, but pulling out has also caused a big distraction.

And what does this mean for the summit as a whole?

Because it's already been criticised over how it's been managed.

And there was another cancellation from the boss of NVIDIA.

Yes, that's right.

Jensen Huang is another high profile no-show.

He was supposed to be here and hasn't arrived.

I mean, look, it is an absolutely enormous gathering of not only representatives from lots of countries, but also the world's biggest tech firms.

There are

It's had to be 50,000 people here and there's huge exhibition halls where everybody's showing off their tech and trying to promote their country as being the place to come for the AI revolution.