Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates landed in India on February 16 to attend the Union government’s AI Impact Summit 2026. The allegations against the tech billionaire in the Epstein files have now followed him here.
Gates arrived first at Amravati in Andhra Pradesh and was welcomed by the state’s IT Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Nara Lokesh. He is set to proceed to New Delhi, where the summit will take place from February 16 to 20.
In 2025, Microsoft and the Telangana state government said an AI data centre would be built at Gachibowli. Months later, Google and AdaniConneX announced an AI data centre in Andhra’s Visakhapatnam.
Many in India have criticised Gates’ inclusion at the summit. Meanwhile, he has declared that he “regrets every moment” he spent with Epstein.
So what do the files say about him?
Some of the accusations are sexual in nature.
The records show evidence of multiple meetings, dinners and philanthropic discussions with Epstein. They also reveal the web of access and power the two wealthy men moved in.
Gates has said that he first met Epstein in 2011, well after the widely reported 2008 conviction for sexual crimes.
Between 2005 and 2007, Epstein was accused of sexually abusing multiple underage girls. The first survivor to come forward was 14 years old. The US Attorney’s office cut a plea deal with his lawyers. Epstein only pleaded guilty to one charge of solicitation and one charge of solicitation of a minor.
But after this case, he was required to publicly register as a sex offender.
Notably, the Gates Foundation invests heavily in initiatives for adolescent girls. The Gates Foundation’s chief executive, Mark Suzman, has said he now feels “sullied” by the allegations.
What the emails say
Gates intended to meet Epstein in 2010 but cancelled due to scheduling conflicts, the records show. “I was looking forward to the dinner,” the tech billionaire wrote.
Two July 2013 emails that Epstein wrote to himself have now become one of the focal points of public anger against Gates. Both communications are long and rambling. It is unclear if they were written for himself or on behalf of someone else. It is also not known if Epstein ever sent both emails.
The first mail says, “In my role as his right hand, I had been asked on multiple occasions and was wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate, to the ethically unsound and had been repeatedly asked to do other things that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal.”
The mail continues, “From helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women, to being asked to provide adderall fro bridge tounianints (sic).”
On the same day, Epstein wrote himself an even longer email.
This reads, “… you [Gates] then subsequently, with tears in your eyes, implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda …”
Melinda French Gates is Bill Gates’ former wife. The two divorced in 2021.
Epstein seems to say that he facilitated extramarital affairs and sexual encounters for Gates. He also appears to say that he procured antibiotics for Gates’ STD that could also be administered – without consent – to Melinda.
Further, in 2019, Gates was reportedly investigated by Microsoft’s board of directors because he “sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000”. He stepped down from the board the following year.
Additionally, some reports suggest that Epstein had drafted the mail on behalf of Boris Nikolic, Gates’ former science adviser. Forbes reports that the timing of the mail corresponds to when Nikolic was in touch with Epstein for Gates Foundation business.
Gates denied Epstein’s claims in an exclusive interview with 9News.
“That email was never sent. The email is false. I don't know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way? Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise that I did that.”
However, Melinda told the Wildcard with Rachel Martin podcast, “It’s hard whenever those details come up because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.”
She added that she is thankful to now be away “from all the muck”.
One more, sent in December 2011, includes the line: “Oct. 23rd Bill Gates late.,, mid october washington..Boris, Regina, Jan 12 after jpm, gates to island (sic).” The mail is from Epstein, but the receiver’s ID is redacted.
Gates has also denied ever going to Epstein’s Little St James island in the Caribbean, where minors were trafficked and abused.
Both men extensively discussed philanthropic efforts. In one communication from December 2014, Epstein sends a detailed list of suggestions. He also invites Gates to “the island”.
Additionally, photos from the Epstein files show Gates with several women whose identities have been redacted.
Earlier photos from the Epstein estate, released in December, show him with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew. At least two survivors have accused Andrew of rape. He is King Charles's brother and has now been stripped of his royal titles.
In another, Gates poses with Larry Visoski, a pilot employed by Epstein for reportedly 30 years.
Others in these photos include US President Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton, Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, activist Noam Chomsky, and far-right ideologue Steve Bannon, among others.
Remember that Epstein’s private jet, a Boeing 727, was later nicknamed the ‘Lolita Express’. The plane is believed to have been used extensively for trafficking minor girls. The name is a reference to the 12-year-old character of Lolita, who is abducted and sexually abused in Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel of the same name.
