10 Indian AI Leaders Named to TIME100 AI 2026 List

India is leaving its mark on the future of artificial intelligence, and TIME just took notice.

Ten Indians and people of Indian origin landed spots on TIME's 2026 list of the 100 most influential people in AI. The recognition spans founders building startups in Bengaluru to CEOs running global tech giants and researchers shaping how AI works.

Vivek Raghavan, co-founder of Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, earned recognition for building AI models in Indian languages. After spending over a decade working on Aadhaar, India's biometric identity system, he co-founded Sarvam in 2023 to create what he calls "AI sovereignty." His vision: stop exporting data and importing intelligence, much like India once exported cotton and imported cloth.

Sarvam raised $300 million in its Series B round, with Nvidia joining in August. The company now builds AI models covering 22 Indian languages, valued at about $1.5 billion.

Utkarsh Saxena also made the Innovators category for founding Adalat AI, which builds speech and language tools for Indian courtrooms. His technology tackles the transcription and case management bottlenecks slowing down India's judicial system.

The list includes major tech leaders too. Arvind Krishna, IBM's Chairman and CEO and an IIT Kanpur graduate, appeared on TIME's worldwide cover as one of 17 featured honorees. Sanjay Mehrotra leads Micron Technology, making the high-bandwidth memory chips that power AI systems worldwide.

Research and healthcare got representation through Anima Anandkumar, a Caltech professor and IIT Madras alumna who previously led machine learning research at Nvidia. Suchi Saria founded Bayesian Health to apply AI to clinical decisions and predicting patient deterioration.

The policy side matters just as much as the technology. Arvind Raman directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology, putting him at the center of American AI standards. Sunny Gandhi and Meetali Jain work on AI policy and litigating technology harms respectively.

The Ripple Effect

These ten names represent more than individual achievement. They're working across the entire AI stack, from the semiconductor chips at the bottom to the policy questions at the top.

Some build the foundational models, others apply AI to courtrooms and hospitals, and still others ask hard questions about how this powerful technology should be governed. Together, they're shaping how AI develops for billions of people worldwide.

Their presence on this list signals something bigger: India's role in AI isn't just about using the technology, but defining how it works and who it serves.