Caught A Bug After Weeks Of Travel: NVIDIA On CEO's Absence From AI Summit

Amid questions over CEO Jensen Huang's absence at the India AI Impact Summit, NVIDIA managing director for South Asia, Vishal Dhupar, said the top official was unwell after weeks of extensive travel and has deputed Jay Puri to lead the company delegation at the event.

Dhupar said wherever he went, people were asking about the NVIDIA CEO.

"Aren't we all missing Jensen? Everywhere I am going, everyone is asking (about) Jensen," he said.

Replying to a question on Huang's cancelling his visit to India, just ahead of the Summit, Dhupar explained, "Jensen has travelled for three straight weeks, he caught a bug, he is under the weather".

"We hope he is well soon, but we are delighted that we have Jay Puri leading a delegation to come here in India and celebrate this very important week where the India AI impact summit will demonstrate the power of India," he said.

With some prominent tech faces, including NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, missing at the AI Summit, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said participation is a personal choice, while noting that the NVIDIA top boss had conveyed his inability to attend due to unavoidable reasons and deputed a senior executive to represent the company.

The India AI Impact Summit, one of the country's largest global gatherings on artificial intelligence, has brought together policymakers, industry leaders and technology experts, and deliberations are on around AI innovation, governance and real-world applications in New Delhi.

Huang was among the most prominent global technology leaders expected at the India AI Impact Summit, and in the days leading up to the Summit, there was significant buzz around his participation at the mega event.

Huang, however, cancelled his visit to New Delhi. The company is represented by a senior executive at the AI Summit.

"Regarding some people not attending, this is a personal choice. I would not like to comment on it. Jensen Huang reached out to us, and he said that because of something really unavoidable... he has deputed his very senior executive to join us," Vaishnaw had said during a briefing at the India AI Summit on Tuesday.

The minister said NVIDIA is also working with Indian companies "for some very large investments in AI infrastructure." "They are also working with some software companies for developing many use cases," the minister had added. PTI MBI NSD NSD

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)