FT has learned about the plans of the organizers of the WEF in Davos to move the forum to another location

The top leadership of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is discussing the possibility of moving the annual summit from Davos, Switzerland, to other cities such as Detroit or Dublin. This was reported on January 21 by the Financial Times (FT) newspaper, citing sources.

"The top management of the World Economic Forum is considering whether to change the venue of the organization's flagship annual meeting, fearing that the event has outgrown the traditional Alpine venue in Davos. <...> Detroit and Dublin were among the places discussed," the article says.

It is noted that Larry Fink, acting co-chairman of the WEF Governing Council (head of the BlackRock investment company), privately considered options for permanently postponing the forum or rotating the venues. In his opinion, the WEF should "appear — and listen — in those places where the modern world is actually built."

According to the newspaper, internal discussions reflect growing logistical and infrastructural challenges. One of the senior leaders of the forum, in a conversation with FT, admitted that the event had "outgrown" its capabilities, and said that he had spent 3.5 hours in traffic trying to get to Davos. Housing shortages, high security costs, and limited resort capacity are becoming increasingly acute amid record attendance. The newspaper's sources expect that the arrival of US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, January 21, will further complicate the situation.

Although the WEF officially continues to call Davos its "spiritual and practical home," FT sources note that the forum has long gone beyond the "club of the European management elite" and now attracts tens of thousands of participants. One of the interlocutors of the publication stated: "He became a victim of his own success." At the same time, many in the forum's leadership and the Swiss authorities are interested in maintaining the WEF's close ties with Switzerland and Europe as a whole, concludes FT.

On the eve of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that the statements of European leaders at the WEF in Davos sounded like performances in an international theater of the absurd. She also criticized the value rhetoric of Western countries.

Prior to that, on January 19, it was reported that The Financial Times newspaper had ridiculed the so-called Davos dialect of English used at the World Economic Forum in 2026. The publication explained that the permanent participants of the WEF have developed a special style of speech, filled with abstract formulations and double meanings. A kind of "phrasebook" was published in the article, designed to explain the real meanings of popular expressions heard in Davos. According to the authors, such formulations often mask contradictions and simplify complex political and economic theses.

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