World leaders and
business executives departed from Davos after an eventful World
Economic Forum annual meeting which was dominated by U.S.
President Donald Trump.
Here’s what we learned:
GEOPOLITICS
Europe learned the value of standing up to Trump. His claim to
Greenland crossed all of its red lines on territorial
sovereignty and Europe’s resistance, possibly helped by the
ensuing fall on financial markets, was seen as one reason he
backed off.
But Europe’s trust in the transatlantic relationship with
Washington has been badly rattled, and its leaders are looking
at how to act faster when the next crisis occurs.
“There are efforts to advance European decision-making. We
are probably too slow,” one European Union official said.
Many European leaders and executives said they found the
Trump administration’s approach offensive and rude, even as some
said the U.S. president had raised legitimate issues.
Ukraine was at first overshadowed during Davos, but as Trump
announced a deal on Greenland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy flew in for talks.
A peace deal appears elusive, despite U.S., Ukrainian and
Russian officials speaking of progress and Zelenskiy said
territorial issues were still unresolved.
In another sign of the influence of the Trump administration
on the agenda, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill
Dmitriev landed in Davos for talks with U.S. officials on
Tuesday – the first Russian official to visit Davos since Russia
invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Dmitriev held talks at the USA House, without attending the
Forum itself.
Leaders openly debated not just whether Trump might strike
Iran, but what would come after. Would the regime crumble? And
if it did, who would own the fallout? Trump’s unpredictability
once again became a defining feature of the event.
MACROECONOMICS AND MARKETS
U.S. threats on the eve of the meeting to impose tariffs on
European allies for resisting Trump’s ambition to acquire
Greenland inflamed trade tensions and reinforced concerns among
some CEOs that Europe can no longer rely on the U.S.
“When you talk to CEOs today, what do they want? Stability,
predictability, and the rule of law. I would say it’s in short
supply,” Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne
said during a debate on tariffs.
Trump’s gambit added fuel to arguments of those advocating
for countries and companies to diversify commerce away from an
increasingly protectionist U.S. and to trade more with each
other.
Financial services firms hoped for increased business
activity and growth this year, as they contended with potential
disruption from U.S. policy, geopolitics, artificial
intelligence and financial technology.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned that a proposal to cap credit
card interest rates would amount to economic disaster, while
other bankers said they were trying to shape the
administration’s policy on affordability.
Crypto industry executives talked up stablecoins and
blockchain technology’s potential to disrupt finance. Some
bankers said they are experimenting with the new technology,
while others remained wary.
Meanwhile, the macroeconomic outlook, questions about the
U.S. Federal Reserve’s independence and fears about bubbles in
AI and other assets weighed on investors’ minds.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The tech industry came to Davos in full force, with rare
appearances by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang.
AI startup Anthropic set up office space on Davos’ main drag
for the week, aiming to grow its enterprise sales. And unlike
the scepticism of late 2025, executives said they were putting
concerns that the market overvalued AI companies behind them.
While jobs would disappear, they said new ones would spring
up. AI would be an excuse to justify layoffs, not necessarily
the cause, two business leaders told Reuters.
But union leaders feared AI would destroy jobs and lead to
more inequality, with some demanding regulation and training.
ENERGY
Big Oil returned to Davos with a vengeance after a year of
Trump’s presidency, as he orders a pause on wind parks and tells
U.S. companies to drill for more oil at home and abroad.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a panel that global
oil production needs to more than double to meet rising energy
demand, challenging widespread analysts’ views that demand may
peak in the next two decades.
Wright also said Europe and the U.S. state of California
were wasting too much money on green energy investments. The
Trump administration is radically changing the narrative and the
oil industry likes it, one oil executive said.
But breaking ranks with Trump on renewable energy, Elon Musk
said the U.S. could produce enough solar power to meet all of
its electricity needs, including booming demand from the
proliferation of Big Tech’s power-hungry data centers.
“You could take a small corner of Utah, Nevada or New Mexico
– a very small percentage of the area of the U.S. – to generate
all of the electricity that the U.S. uses,” he added.
“Unfortunately, the tariff barriers for solar are extremely
high and that makes the economics of deploying solar
artificially high,” Musk said.
DEFENCE
The world breathed a sigh of relief after Trump spoke of no
military solution to his demands for Greenland. But some
executives set their hopes on increased European and U.S.
defence spending, including construction projects and hiring.
Trump also talked about a secret sonic weapon that he said
was used during the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
Russia and China will have to go back to the drawing board,
Trump said. Russian secret services are looking into it, the
Kremlin said.
Published on January 24, 2026
