World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026

Davos, Switzerland | 19–23 January 2026

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 will once again transform Davos into the most powerful diplomatic, economic, technological, and strategic command center on the planet. From 19 to 23 January, the world’s top decision-makers will convene to define the global agenda for a rapidly changing world shaped by artificial intelligence, geopolitical realignment, climate pressure, demographic shifts, and technological acceleration.

This year’s meeting brings together an extraordinary concentration of global leadership — heads of state, central bankers, CEOs of the world’s largest corporations, Nobel-level scientists, innovators, and civil society leaders — all working within a single ecosystem of dialogue, negotiation, and future-building.

Geoeconomic confrontation — ranging from sanctions to tariffs — is the top threat, found the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Global Risks Report on the eve of its annual meeting gathering the world's business and political elites, set to take place in Davos next week.

The 21st edition of the report, published on Wednesday (Jan 14), found that geo-economic confrontation moved up two spots from last year to rank as the No 1 immediate-term risk most likely to trigger a material crisis on a global scale in 2026.

The WEF study consolidates views from more than 1,300 global leaders and experts, and analyses risks over immediate, short-to-medium term (two-year) and long-term (10-year) horizons.

“In a world of rising rivalries and prolonged conflicts, confrontation threatens supply chains and broader global economic stability as well as the cooperative capacity required to address economic shocks,” the report stated.

The findings come as the global outlook remains uncertain, with half of the respondents surveyed expecting a turbulent or stormy world over the next two years, up 14 percentage points from last year. Another 40 per cent expect the two-year outlook to be unsettled. Meanwhile, only 9 per cent expect stability and 1 per cent anticipate calm. Geo-economic confrontation also placed as the most severe risk over a two-year horizon, followed by misinformation and disinformation, societal polarisation, extreme weather events and state-based armed conflict.

A New Era of Global Cooperation or Confrontation?

10-year horizon

Extreme weather events rank as the No 1 risk over the long-term horizon of 10 years, the report said. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse came in at second place, while critical change to earth systems claimed third position.

More than half (57 per cent) of the survey respondents expect a turbulent or stormy world over the next decade. Nearly one-third (32 per cent) expect things to be unsettled, 10 per cent predict stability and 1 per cent anticipate calm.

The 2026 Annual Meeting takes place at a moment of historic transformation. Global governance systems are under strain, traditional economic models are being disrupted by AI and automation, and geopolitical alliances are being redrawn. Davos has become not just a conference, but the world’s strategic negotiation table — where economic policy, digital governance, climate strategy, and security architecture are increasingly shaped.

More than 300 government leaders will participate this year, including:

Donald J. Trump, President of the United States
Vladimir Zelensky, President of Ukraine
Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
Friedrich Merz, Chancellor of Germany
He Lifeng, Vice-Premier of China
Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar
Javier Milei, President of Argentina
Prabowo Subianto, President of Indonesia
Alexander Stubb, President of Finland
Daniel Francisco Chapo, President of Mozambique

They will be joined by heads of the world’s most powerful international institutions:

António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary-General
Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO Director-General

Together, these leaders will address the most urgent global challenges — economic stability, war and peace, energy transition, climate adaptation, digital governance, and the future of work.

Technology, AI and the Human Future

One of the central themes of WEF 2026 is the intersection of human intelligence and artificial intelligence — how technology will reshape health, productivity, governance, and even the human brain itself.

Among the featured speakers:

Professor Irene Tracey

Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford
Speaking on Understanding the Brain in a Digital Age, Professor Tracey will explore how brain–computer interfaces are already being used in medicine and what ethical limits societies must set to protect autonomy, identity, and human dignity.

Ricardo Hausmann

Founder, Growth Lab, Harvard University
In How Not to Tax the Future, Hausmann will address one of the most urgent dilemmas of the AI economy: how governments can design new fiscal models that support innovation while preserving fairness, competitiveness, and public trust.

The New Global Economy

The private sector remains one of the most powerful forces shaping global transformation. WEF 2026 will bring together CEOs and founders of the world’s most influential corporations, including:

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Group
Bettina Orlopp, CEO of Commerzbank

These leaders will discuss how AI, climate technologies, cybersecurity, fintech, and digital infrastructure will define the next phase of global growth.

Sports, Culture and Soft Power

Global influence today is not built only through politics and economics. Culture, media, and sport have become powerful engines of diplomacy and capital flows.

Erica Alessandri, Board Member of Technogym, will speak on how mega-sports events and the global fitness economy are becoming economic multipliers and cultural unifiers, generating jobs, investment, and national branding.

Davos Goes Digital

Through the World Economic Forum Digital Membership, global leaders can access selected sessions of the Davos programme in real time, giving members a front-row seat to the most important conversations shaping the world.

This opens Davos not only to those physically present in Switzerland, but to a global elite of digital decision-makers, entrepreneurs, academics, investors, and future leaders.

Why WEF 2026 Matters

The World Economic Forum is no longer just a forum. It is the global control room of the 21st century — where technology meets diplomacy, capital meets ethics, and innovation meets governance.

At a time when the world is facing unprecedented disruption, Davos remains the place where global order is redesigned.

Those who participate in this dialogue do not merely observe history. They shape it.