Welcome back to our Need to Know: Davos newsletter!
President Donald Trump’s virtual visit to Davos today laid out his vision for Trump 2.0.
Here are some highlights:
AI Infrastructure investment: Trump touted the $500B “Stargate” project” with Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI, citing it as evidence of renewed business confidence in the U.S. He also will press Saudi Arabia to invest up to $1 trillion, saying he’ll ask Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to “round it up” from $600 billion.
Tariffs & Trade: Trump laid out a simple formula: manufacture in America with low taxes, or face tariffs. He called them “stroke of the pen” policies that will generate “trillions” for the Treasury.
Russia’s war against Ukraine: The president blamed high oil prices for prolonging the conflict. “If the price came down,” he said, “the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately.” He described war as the worst since World War II.
NATO: Trump wants to more than double NATO members’ defense spending requirements to 5% of GDP. He claimed credit for getting members to pay 2% during his first term: “They didn’t pay until I came along.”
E.U. relations: He called the European Union “very, very unfair” to the U.S., citing VAT taxes, agricultural barriers, and slow approvals for building projects. Trump shared an anecdote about a week-long Irish approval that would’ve taken “5-6 years” from the E.U. He made sure to add a diplomatic caveat: “I love Europe, I love the countries of Europe, but the process is a very cumbersome one.”
Here’s what else is happening at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
AI, AI, and more AI
Before Trump’s appearance, Davos finally seemed to turn its attention to AI — though naturally, Trump found his way into that conversation, too. The $500 billion Stargate project, a massive AI infrastructure investment backed by OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle, had SAP CEO Christian Klein praising it as a “great role model” — while lamenting Europe’s regulatory hurdles. His plea to E.U. leaders? Build their own Stargate.
The AI conversation took an existential turn when Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff declared that the assembled executives would be “the last generation of CEOs who will only be managing humans.” He showcased AI’s current reach right there in Davos: an AI assistant in the WEF app that tracks attendees’ sessions and makes recommendations. “From this point forward,” he said, “we will be managing not only human workers, but also digital workers. And that is just incredible.”
Even Pope Francis joined the AI conversation from Vatican City, with a message delivered by Cardinal Peter Turkson: AI’s human-like outputs are raising “critical concerns” about truth in public discourse. His call for “due diligence and vigilance” landed pointedly as AI companies packed the promenade outside, eager to showcase their latest innovations.
Back to tariff talk
Trump’s pivot to Russia sanctions found an unexpected cheerleader: NATO chief Mark Rutte. “I was very, very happy with Trump’s position,” he told CNBC during an interview in Davos on Thursday after Trump threatened “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions” if Russia doesn’t end its war against Ukraine soon. Rutte hopes Europe will follow suit to “choke off the Russian economy.”
The NATO head’s enthusiasm comes with a nod to Trump’s long-standing criticisms: “Trump is right, Ukraine is closer to Europe, but Trump is also right that it is a geopolitical conflict.” His goal? Getting Europe to “step up” while securing “a good and strong deal” to end the war.
Meanwhile, WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala wants everyone to take a deep breath about tariffs. While acknowledging that tit-for-tat retaliation on tariffs would be “catastrophic,” she said they are also “a stroke of the pen policy” and noted that trade often gets unfairly blamed for deeper macroeconomic imbalances. As leaders hyperventilate over Trump’s threats, she pointed to the resilience of global trade: $30.4 trillion worth, with 80% under WTO rules.
Her message to the Davos crowd? Maybe just chill, which is not bad advice going into the last day of Davos. We’ll be back in your inbox one more time tomorrow.
—Jackie Snow