Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates appeared to back out of giving a keynote address at an AI summit in India on Thursday as fresh questions circle about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Gates was scheduled to address the AI Summit in India on behalf of his nonprofit, the Gates Foundation, that he launched with his now ex-wife, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/business/bill-gates-epstein-india-ai-summit.html">The New York Times</a>.
“After careful consideration, and to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities, Mr. Gates will not be delivering his keynote address. The Gates Foundation will be represented by Ankur Vora, President of Africa and India Offices, who will speak later today at the Summit,” the Gates Foundation said in a <a href="https://x.com/BMGFIndia/status/2024316125400748512">statement</a> on Thursday.
“The Gates Foundation remains fully committed to our work in India to advance our shared health and development goals,” it added.
Gates’ relationship with the late, disgraced financier Epstein, convicted in 2008 of sex crimes involving a minor, was revealed after Epstein died by suicide in his cell in a New York correctional facility in 2019. But the full extent of Gates’ relationship with Epstein, which lasted for years after Epstein’s conviction, is still unknown. Gates has since called his interactions with Epstein a “mistake.”
More questions were raised about Gates’ involvement with Epstein in the latest tranche of Epstein files released to the public last month. In the hundreds of thousands of pages of messages and other information, emails that Epstein wrote to himself say that the financier helped Gates acquire medication “in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls.”
Gates has dismissed the claim.
“These claims — from a proven, disgruntled liar — are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” a Gates representative has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/us/bill-gates-epstein.html">said</a>.
Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda, divorced in 2021 for reasons that in part included Gates’ past relationship with Epstein. On Epstein’s message suggesting Gates was involved in extramarital relationships, Melinda Gates did not deny the allegations.
“For me, it&#8217;s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,” she <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/02/03/nx-s1-5697080/melinda-french-gates-reacts-to-ex-husband-bill-gates-being-mentioned-in-epstein-files">said</a> on an NPR podcast earlier this month.
“Whatever questions remain there of what — I can&#8217;t even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband,” she added. “They need to answer to those things, not me.”

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Bill Gates Drops Out Of Keynote Speech Last Minute As Epstein Rumors Swirl