Davos 2026 — Day 2 Highlights

On Day 2 of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, Switzerland, discussions deepened around AI, economic transformation, geopolitical tensions, and leadership confidence, bringing out both opportunities and challenges facing global business and policy leaders.

AI Beyond Content — Into Action

AI emerged as a central theme — not just in generating content, but in driving enterprise systems and workflow automation. Experts noted that discussions have moved beyond basic generative models to “agentic AI” that can reason and operate in real environments, including commerce, logistics, and payments.

Davos 2026: Key Early Highlights

1. High‑Profile Participation & Geopolitical Shift

Davos 2026, the 56th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland, has drawn around 3,000 global leaders from business, politics, and civil society. Among them are U.S. President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration, reflecting a pronounced U.S. presence on the agenda.

Trump’s attendance — his first in person at Davos in six years — is widely seen not just as ceremonial but as a signal of geopolitical influence, shaping discussions on trade, economic policy, and global power dynamics.

His speech, expected mid‑week, is anticipated to emphasize economic reform priorities, including proposals on markets and national economic resilience.

2. Shifting Agenda: Geopolitics, Growth & Dialogue

Although the official theme of Davos 2026 is “A Spirit of Dialogue,” the tone of discussions reflects broader global strain:

• Geoeconomic conflict — i.e., the use of tariffs, sanctions, and trade policy as tools of geopolitical influence — has emerged as a Focus areas include
• These shifts indicate Davos is adapting to a world where strategic competition and technological power play increasingly shape priorities.

3. Diplomacy & Ongoing Talks

Private Club or Trump's "Peace Council"?

In January 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the creation of a new international entity called the "Board of Peace", or Peace Council. This is not a traditional global organization like the United Nations (UN), but rather a closed club of selected nations and leaders, personally invited by the U.S. and Trump himself.

Unlike inclusive institutions based on international law, this initiative is positioned as an elite alliance, where membership depends on strict conditions and the direct oversight of Washington.

It was originally presented as a mechanism for overseeing the transition and reconstruction in Gaza under a UN Security Council mandate until 2027, but is now expanding toward broader geopolitical influence.

Terms of Participation and Structure

Why US startups do not look at the European market

Why U.S. MedTech Startups Must Think Beyond Borders

This was exactly the challenge discussed during the Innovation Industry Talk “Beyond Borders: Scaling US Medtech Startups”, held on October 29 in San Francisco and organized by Mind the Bridge and Theras.

The problem Alberto Onetti addresses, " The gap emerges between research and company creation: tech transfer effectiveness, incentives for faculty entrepreneurship, access to early-stage capital, and the ability to scale spinouts beyond the lab. The result is a paradox: strong science, weak industrialization of research. " 

Unfortunately, this problem is relevant to universities in many countries. This is evident from the map: a number of countries are not even present.

There are already proven tools for solving this. In my opinion, the problem lies with the leadership of a number of countries, which are not ready for change, but simply maintain the status quo that has existed for decades.

Although the event focused on MedTech, its conclusions resonate across nearly every innovation-driven sector.

“American startups should definitely be expanding to Europe,”
said Alex Gonzalez, Director of International Business Development and Distributor Partnerships at Levita Magnetics.
“There’s a misconception that you must be fully commercialized and FDA-approved before entering Europe. In reality, these processes can — and should — happen in parallel.”

Yet most U.S. startups still follow one deeply rooted rule.

“The U.S. startup playbook says: U.S. first,”
noted Saumitra Thakur, Managing Partner at MedMountain Ventures.

Why?

“For many Americans, the U.S. is the center of the entire universe,”
Gonzalez added.
Why search for other galaxies when you can scale — and exit — right at home?

This mindset is reinforced by fear, complexity, and lack of understanding, often resulting in what founders know all too well: analysis paralysis.

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Europe Is Not a Risk — It’s a Strategic Advantage

Ironically, Europe offers some of the most attractive conditions for early-stage MedTech:

• More open academic institutions

• Lower clinical trial costs

• High scientific and regulatory standards

As Dorian Averbuch, four-time entrepreneur with two nine-figure exits (MediGuide and superDimension), pointed out, Europe combines rigor with accessibility — a rare combination.

There is also a powerful financial incentive.

In MedTech, valuations are often driven by revenue multiples and strategic market positioning. Expanding into Europe creates new revenue streams, which can dramatically increase a company’s valuation and acquisition attractiveness.

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So What’s Stopping Them?

Despite being a large market, Europe is structurally complex.

It is not one market — it is 27 different healthcare systems, regulatory regimes, reimbursement models, and cultural approaches to medicine and business.

Today, CE marking and MDR/IVDR certification can be more complex than FDA approval.
And European clinicians are often less commercially oriented, making adoption slower without the right ecosystem.

This makes Europe harder to enter — but also harder for competitors to displace.

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The Real Challenge: Translation

International expansion is rarely about technology.

It is about translation.

“This is especially true in MedTech,”
said Massimo Balestri, General Manager of Theras.
“Business models, reimbursement pathways, and go-to-market strategies must be adapted to each national healthcare system. Success in Europe depends on finding the right local partner — one with clinical credibility, distribution reach, and deep institutional knowledge.”

In fragmented markets, startups need catalysts — organizations that can convert innovation into real-world impact.

That is what Theras Group represents: a bridge between global technology and local healthcare ecosystems.

We call this the Partner Advantage — the ability to transform breakthrough innovation into scalable patient access through strategic local alliances.

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The Bottom Line

U.S. MedTech startups that think globally — early — build:

• Higher valuations

• Stronger strategic positioning

• More resilient revenue models

Those that don’t risk remaining provincial in a global market.

For deeper insights into the evolving MedTech landscape, explore the report:
“The Future of Medtech – European and Global Trends in Chronic Diseases.”

The future of healthcare is global — and the smartest founders are already building it that way.

Alberto Onetti, Chairman at Mind the Bridge.

Geo-economic confrontation ranks as No 1 global risk in 2026, WEF report says

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Vital Voices Announces Global Leaders

Vital Voices Announces 2025 Network Engagement Awardees

Vital Voices celebrates the women who bring its global community to life. The Network Engagement Awards honour twelve extraordinary leaders who go beyond participation — they actively uplift, connect, and empower others across the Vital Voices Global Network.

In a year marked by global uncertainty and challenges for women’s organisations, these awardees stood out for their resilience, generosity, and leadership. Through conversations, mentorship, collaboration, and opportunity-sharing, they strengthened the community and proved that leadership is most powerful when it is shared.

These women demonstrate that one post, one insight, or one act of support can ripple across countries — creating real change and lasting impact.

2025 Vital Voices Network Engagement Awardees