World Economic Forum Opens With Record Leader Turnout as Trump Set to Attend Davos

World leaders head to Switzerland for high-stakes talks, as AI investment fuels optimism but geopolitical tensions darken the mood.

A man installs a microphone for the opening concert of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at the Congress Center in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, 2026. Markus Schreiber/AP Photo

The Swiss alpine town of Davos opened its doors to the World Economic Forum’s 56th annual meeting on Jan. 19, with a steady stream of business and political leaders arriving for a week of closed-door talks and high-profile panel sessions, set against a shifting global economic outlook and rising geopolitical strains.

Organizers said this year’s meeting, running through Jan. 23 under the theme “A Spirit of Dialogue,” is among the most senior gatherings in the forum’s history, featuring a record roster of political leaders alongside top executives and investors.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) said it expected a record 400 top political leaders, including close to 65 heads of state and government and six leaders from the Group of Seven, as well as nearly 850 CEOs and chairs and close to 100 unicorns and technology pioneers. U.S. President Donald Trump is slated to take part, and organizers said the delegation from the United States will be the largest in Davos history.

“We’re pleased to welcome back President Trump to Davos, and he’s bringing the largest U.S. delegation,” WEF President and CEO Borge Brende said, noting that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are also planning to participate, in addition to a large bipartisan delegation from the U.S. Congress.

The WEF has framed this year’s agenda around five broad challenges: cooperating in a contested world, unlocking new sources of growth, investing in people, deploying innovation responsibly, and building prosperity within planetary boundaries. Organizers have described the meeting as a platform for dialogue at a time of rising fragmentation, increasing complexity, and rapid technological change.

“Dialogue is not a luxury, it is a necessity,” Brende said, highlighting the forum’s long-running argument that engagement across governments and industries is essential even as global rivalries sharpen.

“It’s really going to be a discussion at a very important moment. ... Geopolitics is changing,” Mirek Dusek, a forum managing director in charge of programming, said. “Some people think we’re in a transition. Some people think we’ve already entered a new era. But I think it’s undeniable that you are seeing a more competitive, more contested landscape.”

Trump’s expected attendance at the global forum is likely to highlight that tension.

Trump’s Participation Looms Large

The U.S. president has repeatedly signaled that he views global trade and security relationships through the lens of U.S. national interest, a stance that has complicated ties with European allies even as the administration insists that the transatlantic relationship remains strategically important.

Earlier this month, Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he planned to discuss new housing and affordability proposals in his remarks at the forum.

U.S. President Donald Trump makes a special address remotely during the 55th annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2025. Yves Herman/Reuters

“For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream,” Trump wrote. “It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing, but now, because of the Record High Inflation caused by [former President] Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress, that American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans.

“I will discuss this topic, including further Housing and Affordability proposals, and more, at my speech in Davos in two weeks.”

In 2025, Trump used a remote appearance to pressure OPEC to lower oil prices and to call for interest rate cuts, while warning that companies manufacturing outside the United States could face tariffs. Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has pushed for a tougher negotiating stance with major trading partners and has openly questioned elements of Europe’s economic and regulatory model.

On trade, Trump has repeatedly accused the European Union of treating the United States unfairly and has backed tariffs aimed at narrowing the gap in goods flows.

“Hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits with the EU, and nobody’s happy with it,“ Trump said at the WEF meeting in January 2025. ”And we’re going to do something about it.

“I’m trying to be constructive because I love Europe. I love the countries of Europe. But the process is a very cumbersome one. And they do treat the United States of America very, very unfairly with the [value-added tax] taxes and all of the other taxes they impose.”

On security, Trump has continued to press European allies to spend more on defense, arguing that the United States bears too large a share of the NATO burden. Last year, NATO members agreed to sharply raise military spending targets, addressing a priority Trump has pursued since his first term.

In recent months, Trump has renewed the push for U.S. control of Greenland—an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark—which has added to European unease. The president has said that the Arctic territory is strategically vital and that the United States must own it to prevent Russia or China from gaining influence there in the future.

The administration has also criticized free speech conditions in Europe, a theme that became a flashpoint last year when U.S. Vice President JD Vance accused European leaders at the Munich Security Conference of censorship and failing to control immigration. The comments were the first in a series of sharp critiques that unsettled Washington’s allies and widened political friction across the Atlantic.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (L), British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (2nd L), Finnish President Alexander Stubb (3rd L), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (4th L), U.S. President Donald Trump (C), French President Emmanuel Macron (4th R), Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (3rd R), German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (2nd R), and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte (R) pose for a photo in the White House on Aug. 18, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Despite tensions, Trump has met multiple European leaders at the White House for discussions on Ukraine and NATO cooperation, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Trump has also expressed admiration for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom he has called an example of “bold leadership.”

Economy in Focus

As leaders gather in Davos, the economic backdrop is one of resilience mixed with new vulnerabilities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Jan. 19 edged up its global growth forecasts again, saying that the world economy has adapted better than expected to the disruptions caused by U.S. tariffs that peaked in 2025 and have eased in recent months.

“Technology investment, fiscal and monetary support, accommodative financial conditions, and private sector adaptability offset trade policy shifts,” the IMF said in a note, with the latest report indicating that the U.S. effective tariff rate is now 18.5 percent, slightly lower than the 18.7 percent in the IMF’s October forecast.

“Global inflation is expected to fall, but US inflation will return to target more gradually. Key downside risks are reevaluation of technology expectations and escalation of geopolitical tensions.”

The IMF forecast global growth of 3.3 percent in 2026, up by 0.2 percentage points from its October estimate, and also raised its 2025 forecast to 3.3 percent. The outlook for U.S. growth in 2026 has also been lifted by 0.3 percentage points to 2.4 percent, supported by fiscal policy and lower Federal Reserve interest rates.

IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said in a blog post that businesses have adjusted to higher U.S. tariff rates by rerouting supply chains, while trade agreements have lowered some duties and China has redirected exports to markets outside the United States.

A central driver of the improved outlook, IMF officials said, is an investment boom in information technology, particularly artificial intelligence infrastructure. The fund said information technology investment as a share of U.S. output has climbed to its highest level since 2001, lifting business activity and producing global spillovers, especially in Asia’s technology exports.

Signage of an artificial intelligence data center is displayed during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on March 3, 2025. Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images

Gourinchas said the AI boom also introduces risks, including the possibility that lofty expectations for productivity and profit gains could fail to materialize, triggering a correction in stretched market valuations and tighter financial conditions.

“A moderate correction in AI stock valuations with a tightening of financial conditions—reduces global growth by 0.4 percent relative to the baseline,” Gourinchas said. “This could have far-reaching consequences if real investment in technology sectors declines more sharply, triggering a costly reallocation of capital and labor.”

He said downside risks come at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, narrowed fiscal space in many countries, and increased use of export controls on critical inputs such as rare earths, which could interact with any potential correction in AI-related productivity and stock price reassessments in a negative feedback loop that could turn a market correction into a broader growth scare.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.