Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s C.E.O., will soon be making his way to Washington, where the company is planning to host its first-ever inauguration party on Sunday, along with X and The Free Press.
Days later, Khosrowshahi is expected to travel to Davos, Switzerland, for the 54th World Economic Forum — an event that has, in recent years, been a platform for making exactly the kinds of corporate promises that Trump has railed against, including commitments to E.S.G., D.E.I. and globalism.
Khosrowshahi’s itinerary symbolizes a stark shift in corporate America. While many C.E.O.s once distanced themselves from Trump, they are now embracing him. And after years of trumpeting a softer form of capitalism, they are once again zeroing in on the bottom line.
“All other issues have given way to no-nonsense conversations on geopolitics, the economy and how to contend with a rapidly changing world,” Alexander Geiser, the chief executive of the advisory firm FGS Global, told DealBook.
Despite the overlap with Inauguration Day, Davos is expecting a familiar crew. DealBook hears David Solomon of Goldman is arriving on Wednesday, after attending inauguration events in D.C. over the weekend. Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone will leave for Davos on Monday after an inauguration event on Sunday. The Coca-Cola C.E.O. James Quincy will be at Davos, too, fresh off gifting Trump a personalized Diet Coke at Mar-a-Lago.
But while the crowd is the same, the conversation has changed. Here’s how.
E.S.G.: Davos has become a choice venue for splashy climate announcements. In 2020, Marc Benioff of Salesforce rolled out a goal to plant one trillion trees. The same year, Larry Fink of BlackRock headed to Davos shortly after announcing a series of climate-focused initiatives. Fink has since expressed regret over becoming the face of E.S.G. — and a target of the backlash that followed.
While some executives may continue to focus on sustainability, expect very few — if any — to mention E.S.G. by name. The same goes for “D.E.I.,” which executives have all but scrubbed from their digital and physical presence.
There are some exceptions: Pinterest is hosting a panel on using artificial intelligence for “inclusion and belonging,” and the consulting firm Oliver Wyman is presenting its research on the importance of the representation of women in business and government.
Tariffs: While Davos has long broadcast the benefits of a globalized world, executives will be focused on the impact of an increasingly fractured one. What will Trump’s “America First” agenda mean for global trade agreements, including NATO? Will Trump make his tariffs targeted? And could his administration grant some companies exceptions?
Trump’s pick for commerce chief, Howard Lutnick, who typically attends Davos, will not be on hand, a spokeswoman said. Lutnick’s confirmation was expected this week, but has since been held up because of paperwork.
The growing power of technology: Artificial intelligence has been a theme for years. But the race for dominance appears to be at peak viciousness, adding urgency to questions about how to regulate an industry that could reshape the global economy. Expect ample debates over social media moderation and the future of TikTok after the Supreme Court on Friday backed a law forcing the app’s owner, ByteDance, to sell it to a non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States.
Frank McCourt, the billionaire trying to buy TikTok, will be in Davos. As will Bill Ford, the General Atlantic chief executive who sits on the board of ByteDance. Most C.E.O.s of global tech companies, many of whom will be onstage at Trump’s inauguration, are skipping Davos, as they do most years. But Microsoft’s chief, Satya Nadella, will be in Switzerland.
War and peace: With a fragile cease-fire in the Middle East, all eyes are on whether Trump can sufficiently stabilize the region. While Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been a visible presence at Davos, rallying Ukraine’s cause, the big question this time around will be whether Trump can push for an end to the Russian invasion.
How long will Davos keep up the pretense? The event has always tried to position itself as an exercise for bettering the world, but there have always been two Davos agendas. There’s the nominal agenda put out by the World Economic Forum, and there’s what executives are saying on the sidelines.
Now that the political rhetoric stands in stark contrast to many of the traditional messages of Davos, there’s a big question looming over the event itself: Will it more openly embrace the role it has effectively been playing for years now, as a C.E.O. conference?
— Lauren Hirsch and Andrew Ross Sorkin
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Supreme Court backed a law requiring TikTok to sell or face a ban as soon as Sunday. App store operators like Apple and Google face significant penalties imposed by the law if they continue to distribute and update the app. President-elect Trump has explored the possibility of an executive order that could allow TikTok to keep operating despite the pending ban, but it is unclear what that intervention would look like.
Firefighters made progress against the wildfires in Los Angeles. The fires have killed at least 27 people and damaged or destroyed about 12,000 structures. Insured losses could exceed $20 billion, according to JPMorgan.
Goldman gave its C.E.O. an $80 million bonus. As Goldman’s stock soars, the payout to David Solomon to stay five more years ends speculation that the executive could be on his way out.
Stocks rallied on the final trading day of the Biden presidency. In closing at nearly 6,000 yesterday, the S&P 500 climbed by roughly 56 percent over his four years in office, bolstered by robust corporate profits and investor fervor for the artificial intelligence boom. That said, the market for Treasury bonds was especially volatile during the same run, with concerns over inflation and rising fiscal deficits weighing on demand.
The missing mogul
Elon Musk is likely to dominate the conversations at Davos this year, having become a player in a wide range of geopolitical matters, from the fate of TikTok to the war in Ukraine.
Just don’t expect him to participate in those discussions in person.
Musk, who previously called the conference of global leaders “boring af,” is not registered for the event, a spokesperson for the World Economic Forum told DealBook.
The tech mogul wasn’t always hostile toward Davos. In 2008, the Forum named Musk one of its “Young Global Leaders,” along with the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and the skateboarder Tony Hawk. But things began to sour in 2022, when Musk wrote on X that he had declined an invitation to the 2023 meeting. (A Forum representative told news outlets that Musk hadn’t been invited since 2015.)
Around that time, Musk said Davos gave him “the willies,” and he polled his audience on whether “the World Economic Forum should control the world.”
Now Musk has a hand in many of the issues the conference will focus on, given his business interests and his ties to Trump. He has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin of Russia since 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal. He has also joined Trump calls with leaders including Zelensky, and, according to Iranian officials, spoken with Tehran on several issues.
Many think Musk could influence Trump on China. The president-elect has threatened big tariffs on Chinese goods. But Musk has said he is “kind of pro-China.” Tesla makes about half of its cars in the country, and it is awaiting approval to offer its latest autonomous driving technology there.
Such is Chinese officials’ bond with Musk that some have reportedly considered allowing Musk to invest in or buy TikTok’s American operations.
Musk commands power in other ways. His Starlink satellite internet provider is increasingly used in war zones, giving Musk a potentially unheard-of influence over global conflicts. Putin reportedly asked Musk not to activate Starlink over Taiwan as a favor to China, according to The Wall Street Journal.
And then there’s X, where he influences public policy around the world — including in Britain and Germany — via his frequent posts to his more than 210 million followers.
Maybe next year? “Elon Musk is welcome to Davos both this year and next,” the Forum spokesperson told DealBook. “There would be a lot of interest in the business community to hear about his new role.”
The Davos agenda, by the numbers
What do world leaders have at the top of their minds as they head to Davos? In a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, armed conflict emerged as the top global risk.
The 900 survey respondents included leaders across academia, business, government, international organizations and civil society. Almost a quarter said war was the crisis most likely to negatively affect global G.D.P., population or natural resources in 2025.
Here were the top five responses:
1. State-based armed conflict (23 percent)
2. Extreme weather events (14 percent)
3. Geoeconomic confrontation (8 percent)
4. Misinformation and disinformation (7 percent)
5. Social polarization (6 percent)
A separate survey published by the Conference Board this week asked 1,722 C-suite executives to identify two top concerns in several risk categories. Here’s what they chose:
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A downturn or recession (45.7 percent) beat higher labor costs (26.4 percent), inflation (25.7 percent), labor shortages (24.5 percent) and fiscal policy (18.5 percent) as the top economic risk.
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Tension between China, the United States and the European Union (40.6 percent) topped global political instability (39.3 percent), political uncertainty in operating regions (34.7 percent), cyberattacks (25.2 percent) and rising nationalism (16 percent) among geopolitical risk.
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Artificial intelligence (33.9 percent) beat demographic changes (26.1 percent), shifting consumer buying behaviors (26 percent), political polarization (25.2 percent) and declining trust in government (18.7 percent) as the top societal risk.
The focus on A.I. was also reflected in a survey of 3,450 C-suite leaders that Accenture published this week, in which 86 percent of respondents said they felt prepared to increase their investment in generative A.I.
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