Davos Daily: Good morning, day one

At any gathering of the so-called global elite, protests are pretty much inevitable, and Davos is no different.

Demonstrators gathered in the town on Sunday to oppose the event, and call for higher taxation on billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and the world's richest man, Elon Musk. While none of the trio are on the official guest list this year, Davos has long been a touchstone for protests against the superrich.

Some locals aren't fans of the disruption the WEF causes, either. Business Insider's Dan DeFrancesco spied these banners on a house close to the conference's main USA House.

One reads "The WEF is eating up our living space," while the others, well, you don't need to be fluent in Swiss German to understand them.

Will the IPO window finally open up in 2026? There's a lot of talk about some massive companies — SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic — making their public market debut this year.

Chris Taylor, NYSE's chief development officer, told me it could be a "banner year for IPOs."

Those AI and tech giants are unique in their size and name-brand recognition in a way most other private companies can't relate to. But their decision to go public could serve as a stamp of approval for smaller companies to dive in as well.

"Having a mindset change is really important," Taylor told me, and those larger companies will give the public markets a stamp of approval, he added.

So which ones will IPO this year? Taylor declined to speculate on that — I asked — but he did say he could see a domino effect among the big players once one makes the leap.

By far the most anticipated event of this year's World Economic Forum is a "special address" from President Donald Trump at 2 p.m. local time on Wednesday.

While there's no official confirmation of what Trump plans to talk about, it's likely that the ongoing saga of his desire to make Greenland part of the US will feature heavily.

Over the weekend, Trump said that from February 1, he would impose an additional 10% tariff on Denmark, which controls Greenland, as well as Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland, unless they agree to a deal to hand over Greenland to the United States.

European leaders have been unequivocal in their opposition to Trump's plan, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday morning giving a nationwide address to condemn the new tariffs and defend Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland.

While Greenland seems most likely, Trump's speech may focus on something completely different, with rumors swirling in the rarified air of the Swiss Alps that he could make a major announcement during the speech.

"All we are hearing is that it's going to be BIG BIG BIG and to clear our schedules," veteran journalist Steve Clemons wrote in his "Washington Note" newsletter late on Sunday.

Davos kicks off in earnest this evening at around 6 p.m. local time (midday ET), with a curtain-raising concert from Grammy winner Jon Batiste, French violinist Renaud Capuçon, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Then on Tuesday, the real action starts.

Big names from across the worlds of business, tech, and politics have been arriving in the Swiss ski town over the weekend, with more pouring in on Monday.

Figures like Bill Gates, Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, and Jensen Huang, the CEO of AI darling Nvidia, head the bill on the business side.

Political bigwigs attending include French President Emmanuel Macron, Argentina's Javier Milei, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and, of course, President Donald Trump.

Davos might turn into the center of the business world for a week, but it's still a ski town at its core.

I got to check out the slopes on Sunday. And after a 10-year hiatus from snowboarding, I came out mostly unscathed. (To be honest, that's the real victory.)

Still, there was some business to be done as Cloudflare was holding an event. The tech company actually has a relationship with the US Ski & Snowboard.

It's not just your typical corporate sponsorship, though. Some US Ski Team athletes who attended the event discussed the importance of teaming up with tech companies. The innovation they provide can help them during training, like understanding how to better hit a certain line on the mountain to shave fractions of a second off their runs.

For a conference full of so many powerful people, it sure ain't easy to get to.

Davos doesn't have an airport, which means some extra commuting (even for billionaires).

The nearest airport for private planes is St. Moritz, but that's still nearly a two-hour drive. (Although there are always helicopters.) For the rest of us, Zurich Airport is a little over two hours by car or three hours by train.

Here's how I managed the trip this year: