The Consulate General of India in Seattle hosted “Ideas4India: Indian American Tech CEOs Forum | Unlocking the Tech Dividend” September 17, 2026. The event was envisaged as a follow-up to the India AI Impact Summit 2026 with an aim to learn from the unique expertise pool of the Indian American Tech community based out of Greater Seattle, a press release from the Consulate said.
The Forum brought together leading Indian-origin Tech CEOs, several of whom have spent over three decades at the frontiers of cutting-edge technologies, including in Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing, semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, aerospace and enterprise software.
Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella, was the Guest of Honour. He said he was proud to have watched the Seattle technology community grow over roughly 35 years and was pleased to see it forming and strengthening its relationship with India. He described artificial intelligence as a general-purpose technology whose benefits would depend on its broad diffusion across countries, communities and sectors.
Scenes from the Participants of the Ideas4India: Indian American Tech CEOs Forum (17 September 2026, Seattle). Clockwise, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with Indian Ambassador to US Vinay Mohan Kwatra; Few of the participating executives at the; Consul General of India Prakash Gupta with Nadella; and Nadella addressing the Forum. ALL PHOTOS: Indian Consulate in Seattle.
More than 40 Indian-origin CEOs and CTOs participated, including from Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, OpenAI, Anthropic, Intel, Veeam Software, Helion, Rhythms AI, Zenoti, Anicca Data, SeekOut, Stanley, Viome Life Sciences, Edifecs, Gates Foundation, Orange Theory, Stanley 1913, Blink Health, CoralBricks AI, Qubra.ai, Cantina Labs, Waymakers and from other leading technology companies in the Pacific Northwest.
The forum featured an interactive session, in which the participating CEOs shared their ideas and suggestions for strengthening the India – US technology partnership. These ranged from AI infrastructure to data centers, semiconductor design and manufacturing, quantum research collaboration, talent and skilling, aerospace and advanced manufacturing.
Ambassador of India to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kwatra praised the participants’ strong desire to further deepen India USA Tech partnership and reaffirmed Government of India’s commitment to working with all relevant stakeholders in ensuring that India’s AI Mission remains firmly anchored on the principles of inclusivity, openness, sovereignty, democratized access, safety and trust.
The Indian American TECH CEOs Forum began with a minute’s silence to honor the memory of two distinguished Indian origin technology stalwarts from Seattle, who had passed away recently – Samir Bodas, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Icertis, and S. Somasegar, Managing Director of Madrona Venture Group and formerly Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Their contributions to scaling up Seattle’s technology ecosystem and to supporting Indian origin start- ups were fondly recalled and appreciated by the participants.
Padma Shri recipient Ajay Bhatt, Inventor of the USB C drive (formerly with Intel) also participated in the deliberations.
Several of the companies represented at the forum maintain substantial engineering, research and business operations in India. In addition, Microsoft has announced an investment of $17.5 billion in India over four years from 2026 to 2029, its largest ever in Asia, to advance the cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling and operations. Amazon has announced a total investment of $48 billion between 2026 and 2030, including expansion of AWS data center capacity at Mumbai and Hyderabad. Costco, is also establishing its first Global Capability Center at Hyderabad.
According to the Seattle Consulate, this was the first time that such a gathering of Indian American Technology leaders was convened in Seattle and it is expected that “Ideas4India” Forum will continue to serve as an important platform for strengthening the India USA Technology partnership, including under the India-US TRUST Initiative (Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology).
Under the India-US TRUST Initiative, both countries are working to connect their respective innovation ecosystems and to advance collaboration, including co-development and co-production, in artificial intelligence, quantum, semiconductors, space, telecom and biotechnology.
