Nearly 3,000 high-level participants from business, government and beyond, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, and countless numbers of activists, journalists and foreign observers are gathering in the Swiss city of Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting.
Here’s a look at the latest edition of the elite affair in Alpine skiing:
The forum is a Geneva-based think tank and event organizer whose main event – the annual meeting – began in 1971 in Davos, a ski-resort town of about 10,000 people at an altitude of about 1,500 meters (about 5,000 feet) in the Alps in eastern Switzerland.
The first program, hosted by the forum’s founder Klaus Schwab, featured a gathering of business executives.
Since then, the meeting has expanded into a catch-all conference on issues as diverse as economic inequality, climate change, technology, and global cooperation – as well as competition and conflict.
More than 200 times will face many problems.
Organizers claim a record of nearly 400 top political leaders, including more than 60 heads of state and government, and nearly 850 chairmen and chief executives of many of the world’s leading companies.
Headlining the list is US President Donald Trump, who will deliver a speech on Wednesday, along with several Cabinet ministers and senior advisers including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
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President Emmanuel Macron of France, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, President Ahmad al-Sharaa of Syria, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, President Felix Tshisekedi of Congo, Vice Premier He Lifeng of China, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine are among the top guests.
Organizers say that 55 ministers of economy and finance, 33 ministers of foreign affairs, 34 ministers of trade, commerce and industry and 11 central bank governors are expected.
Tech titans scheduled to attend include Jensen Huang of Nvidia. Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, and Arthur Mensch of France’s Mistral AI.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are among the top officials from international institutions.
What’s different this year?
The political landscape has become incredibly complex this year: Trump’s announcements and policies on subjects as diverse as Venezuela, Greenland and Iran – not to mention his aggressive tax policies – have upended the world order and raised questions about America’s role in the world.
The advent of AI – its promise and peril – has also become a hot topic. Business managers will explore how to use it to increase efficiency and profitability; labor leaders and advocacy groups will warn of its dangers to jobs and lives, and policymakers will look for the best way forward between regulation and the right to innovate.
The organizers of the Davos conference always talk about the summary of the meeting, and this year it is “Spirit of Conversation” — about five themes of cooperation, growth, investing in people, innovation and building prosperity.
Critics say Davos is too much talk and not enough action to correct global inequality and solve problems like climate change.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
