This was a World Economic Forum meeting dominated by government leaders while CEOs tried to make sense of a fundamental realignment of the world order. President Donald Trump delivered an America First speech that touted the free market strategy of his Administration while recalibrating American foreign policy including the launch of a Board of Peace. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney dropped the gloves in his address that contended the changes in U.S. policy are a “rupture” which give middle powers a choice between submission and aggressive alternative alliance building. President Emmanuel Macron of France posited that “we are shifting towards a world without rules, where imperial ambitions are resurfacing (citing Russia/Ukraine), towards a world without effective collective governance.” In real time, NATO leader Mark Rutte and President Trump agreed to a framework of an agreement over the future of Greenland. While this contention among governments provided a dramatic reinforcement of the central role played by the WEF, it left participants departing the mountain with a sense of vertigo and instability.
Here are ten findings from my week:
- AI - David Sacks, the U.S. Government top advisor on AI, said that the administration is considering legislation that would regulate both AI and social media on a federal level. He told journalists that AI is not a replacement for the writer because it can give you the mean but not the best creative outcome based on human insight. He noted that AI generated one half of U.S. GDP growth in 2025 with the massive investment in data centers and power. The U.S. has a global market share advantage over China, but the Chinese have 500,000 AI developers hard at work, writing on top of ever evolving semiconductors. Omar Abbosh, CEO of Pearson*, spoke about automation or augmentation, giving employees the opportunity for continuous upskilling instead of redundancy.
- AI Promise in Health - AI is being used to fight cancer through drug discovery acceleration, with open sourcing of AlphaFold involving three million MDs promising to take research, drug discovery and development from ten years to one year. AI also promises more equal health outcomes by spreading knowledge to all MDs treating cancer. The Manhattan Project model, multiple teams working in parallel, is being applied to cancer research.
- Critical Minerals - Demand is exceeding supply by 30 percent as electrification, digitalization and de-carbonization are simultaneously at work. We will see a tripling of data centers by 2035, we need 600 million kilometers of electric lines, while there is significant growth of EVs in Europe and China. China dominates high-performance materials, including magnets and lithium batteries. Mining remains slow and reputationally challenged, it can take 10–20 years to open a copper mine, but countries like Chile are working to modernize the sector. There are new markets coming on stream, notably Saudi Arabia, which has declared minerals to be its third pillar of growth after oil and petrochemicals.
- Improving Government Performance - The UAE is in the business of nation building, working with 45 countries in Africa and the former Soviet Union. The goals of the program are zero bureaucracy, creation of performance dashboards, and most of all leadership capabilities. The Dubai School of Government partnered with the Harvard Kennedy School 20 years ago to initiate the program. There is a World Government Summit next week in Dubai with awards for participants including Most Reformed Government and Best Minister of the Year, in partnership with PWC for objectivity. Citizens in the UAE grade the government on bureaucracy.
- U.S. Economy to Out-Perform - Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, confidently predicted that the U.S. GNP will grow 5 percent in 2026. He cited AI investment, inward foreign investment, and growth of exports as key factors. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase said that the U.S. will benefit from quantitative easing (lower interest rates) and fiscal stimulus early in 2026. Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone cited deregulation as a key factor in putting the U.S. “on a tear.” Semiconductor production is being insourced, with investment from TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) and Samsung. Meanwhile, key European economies such as France and Germany are struggling to generate any growth, with Chinese car imports soaring and trans-Atlantic trade diminished by tariffs.
- Rise of Local Brands - Consumer preference is shifting decisively toward domestic brands. In Egypt, local detergent brands now outsell global competitors. China has produced 100 new cosmetics brands sold entirely via e-commerce. Multinationals face distrust and disinformation online. As one CPG executive put it: “we are not connecting differently with consumers. Creators are the key source of growth.”
- The Future of Europe - The EU must take more responsibility for its own security and recognize the necessity of deeper economic integration. Europe must also do a better job of keeping its capital on the continent instead of the outflow to the U.S., with a focus on AI, clean tech, manufacturing and defense. At present most investors focus on bonds or U.S. equities; Europe should have a capital markets union. There is too much regulation; one CEO of a mid-sized company said that he must comply with 35,000 rules. Europe will salvage the remnants of the trans-Atlantic relationship by focusing on areas of agreement, such as critical minerals, icebreaking in the Arctic and NATO. But George Osborne, former Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UK, warned, “The U.S. economy has pulled away from Europe in the past two decades. The market cap of OpenAI exceeds the total value of the top 10 UK publicly listed companies.” Europe will practice values-based realism, recognizing Greenland as a sign of a permanent rift with the U.S.
- Ukraine - I visited the Ukraine House for an hour. It was a shattering experience that gave me a sense of life in a war zone. A film is playing in the lobby which shakes the entire building. It shows Russian military action in the future against Brussels, Munich, and even Davos. Drones descend on vehicles. Bombers fly above, dropping their deadly payloads. The truth of the Ukraine conflict is seen in the dreadful death toll of one million Russians and 500,000 Ukrainians. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke bluntly in Davos, “We should not accept that Europe is just a salad of small and middle powers; when united we are truly invincible…we are ready to be part of a Europe that truly matters, a Europe of real power.”
- India - India has moved closer to the U.S. over the past decade, imposing duties on Chinese goods and removing Chinese IT infrastructure, only to be shaken by U.S. tariffs in 2025. Now the Indians are in a confused state, moving to reestablish relations with China and Russia but hoping to be in a better place with the U.S. Indian IT companies are moving quickly on AI, especially on process change that delivers tangible benefit (health as example). Indian companies were everywhere in Davos, from The Mahindra Group to Tata, in sharp contrast to Chinese companies which were not so prominent. (a stark contrast to CES in Las Vegas where Chinese companies were omnipresent).
- President Trump - This was a declaration of distinction from other nations in the world. “The U.S. is the economic engine of the globe. Follow what we are doing. Europe is going the wrong way with imports, mass immigration, government spending, and the green sustainability scam.” He talked about lower taxes enabled by tariffs, using Switzerland as an example, with a $40 billion trade surplus with the U.S., now equalized through 30 percent tariffs. He spoke about lower energy costs through reduced regulation on natural gas exploration and a goal of $2 per gallon gasoline now possible with the action in Venezuela, in sharp contrast to the price of electricity in Germany that is 65 percent higher than in the U.S. He said Europe must agree to double the price of pharmaceuticals so that Americans pay the same as other nations. He noted several pro-consumer actions, including a 10 percent cap on credit card interest and a ban on private equity firms buying homes. He concluded, “The U.S. has a special culture, about to celebrate its 250th year. Europe shares that culture but needs to rediscover its spirit.”
The World Economic Forum was an invaluable meeting place for these global leaders, but there was also a diversity of views that was very healthy. It led me to examine my own situation, which is that I have become more insular since the October 7 attack in Israel and subsequent rise in antisemitism. My commitment is to be more open this year, meeting more people with views different from my own, to learn more about their concerns and to understand them. I will broaden my circle of acquaintances and my sources of information. I believe this is a moment for leaders more broadly to examine their own insularity and commit to becoming more open.
*Denotes an Edelman client
