A record 400 top political leaders, including close to 65 heads of state and government, with six G7 leaders expected, nearly 850 of the world’s top CEOs and chairs, and almost 100 leading unicorns and technology pioneers will convene in Davos Klosters for one of the highest level gatherings in the Annual Meeting’s history.
Held under the theme of A Spirit of Dialogue, the 56th Annual Meeting will provide an impartial platform for close to 3,000 participants from over 130 countries to navigate the major economic, geopolitical and technological forces reshaping the global landscape from January 19 to 23, 2026.
A major focus will be on the unprecedented speed of innovation and technological advancement with key voices from industry and academia present.
“Dialogue is not a luxury in times of uncertainty; it is an urgent necessity,” said Børge Brende, President and CEO, World Economic Forum. “At a critical juncture for international cooperation, marked by profound geoeconomic and technological transformation, this year’s Annual Meeting will be one of our most consequential. With historic levels of participation, it will provide a space for an unparalleled mix of global leaders and innovators to work through and look beyond divisions, gain insight into a fast shifting global landscape, and advance solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s biggest and most pressing challenges.”
Top political leaders taking part include Donald Trump, President of the United States of America; Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada; Friedrich Merz, Federal Chancellor of Germany; Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission; He Lifeng, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China; and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine.
Trump will be joined by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, AI and crypto czar David Sacks, Michael Kratsios, head of the White House’s science and technology policy, and Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The meeting marks Trump’s third in person appearance at Davos, following visits in 2018 and 2020. In 2025, shortly after being re-elected, he delivered a speech at the annual meeting via video.
Other top leaders include Javier Milei, President of Argentina; Prabowo Subianto, President of Indonesia; Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain; Guy Parmelin, President of the Swiss Confederation 2026; Vahagn Khachaturyan, President of the Republic of Armenia; Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan; Bart De Wever, Prime Minister of Belgium; and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece.
Heads of international organizations taking part include António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations; Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization; Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group; Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Mark Rutte, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization.
Around 1,700 business leaders, including close 850 of the world’s top CEOs and chairpersons from the World Economic Forum’s Members and Partners, will also participate, alongside almost 100 CEOs and chairpersons of Unicorn companies and Tech Pioneers who are transforming industries and shaping the future of technology worldwide.
Some of the top voices in technology and innovation taking part include Jensen Huang, NVIDIA; Satya Nadella, Microsoft; Dario Amodei, Anthropic; Dina Powell McCormick, Meta; Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind; Yoshua Bengio, Université de Montréal; Alex Karp, Palantir Technologies; Sarah Friar, OpenAI; and Yuval Harari, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.
Close to 200 leaders from civil society and the social sector, including labor unions, non governmental and faith based organizations, as well as experts and heads of the world’s leading universities, research institutions and think tanks, will also participate in the meeting.
The 2026 programme is centered around five pressing global challenges where public private dialogue and cooperation, involving all stakeholders, are critical for collective progress: How can we cooperate in a more contested world? How can we unlock new sources of growth? How can we better invest in people? How can we deploy innovation at scale and responsibly? How can we build prosperity within planetary boundaries?
“In a global economy shaped by technology, geoeconomics, and demographics, the defining challenge will be whether opportunity is broadly shared or if growth remains sluggish and uneven,” said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum. “The meeting will connect leaders to discuss how to unlock growth, jobs and economic transformation that translate into progress for communities everywhere.”
The meeting’s Arts and Culture Programme will further amplify the diversity of voices and perspectives needed to advance impact, while showcasing the power of art, influence, and culture to drive change and create unique space for dialogue.
Renowned artistic and cultural leaders in attendance include Marina Abramović, Jon Batiste, Sabrina Elba, Sir David Beckham, Yo-Yo Ma, and will.i.am.
The Annual Meeting 2026 will be accessible to the wider public through the livestreaming of over 200 sessions. In addition, the Open Forum, now in its 23rd year, will host public panel discussions for the local community and participants from around the world, encouraging wider participation and open dialogue on key global issues.
For the first time, the USA House in Davos is being recognized by the US State Department as the country’s official headquarters on the Promenade. “The administration is coming in force,” said Dave Ackerman, who is organizing the USA House.
The gathering comes at a moment defined by profound geopolitical, technological and societal shifts. Trump’s America First policy has led to trade tariffs being used as punishment, military intervention in Venezuela, threats to take over Greenland by force and a US retreat from cooperation on climate, health and other global challenges, testing the forum’s vision of a rules based global economic order.
One feature of this year’s WEF meeting will be top oil executives eager to hear Trump promoting his energy dominance agenda, which encourages them to drill for more oil and gas while snubbing alternatives like wind and solar. The CEOs of Exxon Mobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, Equinor and ENI are all expected after much more sporadic attendance in past years, when oil players saw the forum as anti fossil fuel.
