What insights did the WEF in Davos bring apart from Greenland?

This year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) was held under the motto “A Spirit of Dialogue.” However, Trump's monologue on the second day of the event and his previous threats regarding Greenland undermined this motto. His ultimate rejection of military intervention and punitive tariffs against European trading partners allowed the markets to breathe a sigh of relief. Aside from Trump's threats and sweeping statements, however, there were also interesting insights to be gained into the future of artificial intelligence (AI).

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock and co-chair of the WEF in Davos, sees unimagined opportunities in investing in AI infrastructure and applications. He does not see an AI bubble, because the decision-makers from business and politics in attendance (around 3,000, according to the organizers) agree on one thing: AI is a game changer. Accordingly, he is tirelessly raising capital together with powerful investors from around the world to drive forward the necessary investments. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Elon Musk, among others, are singing from the same hymn sheet, and Musk is also optimistic that AI will change the world forever. According to Satya Nadella, Europe is still investing far too little in AI and could therefore fall behind.

Is Europe falling behind?

European CEOs are confident and see their strengths less in the digital world and more in the industrial sector. Siemens CEO Roland Busch positions himself as the global market leader in “industrial AI” and sees better opportunities here to increase the company's sales and margins. However, SAP CEO Christian Klein warns against copying the US model. He even sees the demand for state-subsidized data centers in Europe as a “misguided solution to the wrong problem.” SAP is focusing on the integration of AI agents into business processes. In his opinion, technological progress alone does not bring additional growth if it is not accompanied by operational value creation.

In any case, the European view of AI is not as euphoric as the CEOs of the tech giants predict. The study published by PwC on Monday, January 19, 2026 (Between AI Hope and Cyber Fear – How German CEOs Are Reinventing Success – PwC) clearly shows that German managers remain cautious. Only 11% of the CEOs surveyed can confirm measurably higher sales through AI (29% globally).

There is no question that the US is the global leader in terms of financing and implementation, followed by China and other emerging nations such as India. Europe, however, has potential to catch up and needs more courage and agility to implement the announced infrastructure investments.

Artificial intelligence

From an economic perspective, the question arises as to whether the planned projects are worthwhile. The capital requirements are enormous, as is the risk that the investments will not pay off within the planned time frame or may even lead to massive write-downs.

Our calculations for the “Magnificent 7” (Amazon, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla) show that although capital expenditure (CAPEX) increased massively to more than USD 590 billion last year, free cash flow also grew to more than USD 530 billion in the same period and remains positive despite the massive investments (source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.).

In our view, there are currently no clear parallels between the market and the tech bubble of 2000.

We remain positive about equity investments, but are very selective in our stock selection and continue to find interesting companies within our investment universe.

If you would like to learn more about our current investment strategy, please contact your private banker.

This is a marketing communication from Kathrein Privatbank Aktiengesellschaft within the meaning of the Securities Supervision Act 2018 and is for informational purposes only. This information is intended to provide a general overview of current market data and Kathrein's market opinion and does not contain any direct or indirect recommendation for a specific investment strategy in the sense of a financial analysis. When investing in securities, price fluctuations due to market changes are possible at any time. Information and representations relating to the past do not allow reliable conclusions to be drawn about future results. Despite careful research and compilation, no liability or guarantee can be assumed for the accuracy of the data.