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It's Day Two of Davos.Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty ImagesIt's Business Insider's second day at Davos, and it's a busy one.Today, we'll cover speeches from power players like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.Follow along here for updates on what people are saying.Does this guy have a badge?Do you want to build a snowman? Someone at Davos has!Dan DeFrancescoSatya Nadella says this is how he preps for his Davos meetings with AIMicrosoft CEO Satya NadellaJASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty ImagesMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella, who spoke in a morning panel led by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, shared how he has always prepared for Davos meetings — and how that's changed with AI.He said his field team used to prep him for 50 or so meetings, according to a "particular workflow.""Nothing had really changed since I joined in '92 to essentially even a few years back," he said about the year he joined the tech giant as an engineer. "Whereas now, I just go to Copilot and say, "Hey, I'm meeting Larry. Please give me a brief."He added that the briefs generated by Microsoft's AI assistant give him a comprehensive overview of the relationship between his firm and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's team.AI tools are also changing the traditional bottom-to-top flow of information, he said."In fact, what I do is I take that and immediately share that back with all my colleagues across all the functions," he said. "Think about it. It's a complete inversion of how information is flowing in the organization."Lines at 9 a.m. at the Belvedere hotel, a meeting hot spotA long line outside the Belvedere Hotel in Davos, a meeting hotspot.Jamie HellerUber CEO: Robot drivers will beat humans on safetyUber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.Al Drago/Getty ImagesRobot drivers will ultimately outperform humans on safety, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on Tuesday in Davos."If you think about the world 20 years from now, your Uber is going to be driven largely not by a human being, but by a robot driver — a piece of software on top of a car," Khosrowshahi said, adding that vehicles are becoming increasingly sophisticated and more like "computers on wheels."Khosrowshahi said autonomous systems have clear advantages over human drivers. "There's no doubt in my mind that the robot driver can be safer than a human driver," he said. Robot drivers don't get tired or distracted, don't text while driving, and can operate continuously while improving over time, he added.The key question, Khosrowshahi said, is what level of safety is "enough" for robot drivers — whether matching human performance is sufficient or whether autonomous vehicles should be held to a higher standard.In the longer term, he said, human driving could resemble horseback riding today, becoming a niche activity done for enjoyment."There's no doubt that 10 years from now, there will be questions as to whether humans are safe enough," he said.Trump's setting the Greenland agenda at DavosTrump's heading to Davos, and Greenland's on the agenda.illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty ImagesTrump is expected to arrive in Davos on Wednesday. While Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants business leaders to take a breath and chill out about Greenland, that may not be in the cards.Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday that he had "a very good telephone call with Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, concerning Greenland.""I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland. As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security," Trump wrote.Trump on Sunday had sent messages to Norway's leader, saying the US requires "Complete and Total Control of Greenland." Greenland is a semi-autonomous Danish…

The economy has changed a lot in the first year of Trump's second term.Alex Wong/Getty ImagesDonald Trump just wrapped up the first year of his second term as president.Business Insider examined how the economy has changed in that year.The job market slowed down a lot, consumers kept spending, and tariffs affected inflation a little.One year down, three more to go.Donald Trump became president for the second time on this day in 2025. With that came a lot of new economic plans for trade, immigration, and the federal workforce.Elizabeth Renter, a senior economist at NerdWallet, said uncertainty from actual or potential policy changes affected consumers, job seekers, and small to midsize businesses."There was a lot of guesswork happening in 2025, and then you add to that mix issues with economic statistics, and sort of reading the tea leaves to figure out where the economy is headed amidst all this change became increasingly difficult," Renter said.Business Insider looked back at the economy under Trump so far. The tariff rate surged, many federal workers left, people continued to spend, and hiring was low.The pace of change could slow in the next year. Jason Draho, the head of asset allocation Americas for UBS Global Wealth Management, said the policies that could have the largest economic effects have already been implemented or announced in Trump's first year, including changes to tariffs and the One Big Beautiful Bill's tax cuts.Draho said that announcements so far in 2026, such as a credit card interest rate cap and wanting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase mortgage-backed securities, are tweaks "around the edge in terms of the overall macro impact.""President Trump pledged to turn the page on Joe Biden's economic disaster of runaway inflation and anemic growth," Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, said. "Much work remains, but President Trump in one year has delivered accelerating GDP growth, private sector job creation, over a dozen new trade agreements, historic drug pricing deals, and cooled inflation."The charts below highlight how the economy evolved in Trump's first year.Job growth was the lowest in decades, aside from recessionswindow.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}});The US experienced the smallest job growth outside a recession since 2003 last year, adding just 584,000 jobs.Draho said overall policy uncertainty, tariffs, immigration, and fears of a recession from months ago have been factors."It's made companies a little more reluctant to invest, to hire, if you're not sure how much of an overall economic drag that tariffs would have," Draho said about overall uncertainty. "So even if your company may not be directly affected by tariffs, just the uncertainty of how this could play out would be a bit of a negative."Economists and job-market experts have said that the slower job market is unsustainable. Renter said it could affect consumer spending if it doesn't reverse course."How we feel about our income plays a big role in how we spend, and I think the longer this uncertainty and the longer this labor market chill sort of sits over us, the more that a greater number of households are going to start tightening their purse strings," Renter said.The economy has still been growingwindow.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}});Gregory Daco, the chief economist at EY, said the economy is showing resilience despite a jobless…

A top BYD executive says countries are slowing the EV transition by changing policy too often.Asad/Xinhua via Getty ImagesPolicy changes are slowing the global EV transition, a top BYD exec says.Countries that go "back and forth" on EV policy risk confusing manufacturers, Li said.When governments give a "very clear line," automakers can focus on execution, Li said.The global EV transition has a policy problem, says BYD executive vice president Stella Li.Li said in a panel session on EVs on the second day at Davos that governments keep changing the rules about EVs. The stop-start approach makes it harder for automakers to commit capital, plan product cycles, or build supply chains with confidence, even as competition across the EV markets in China, the US, and Europe heats up.Li said that when countries go "back and forth" on their EV policy, it creates a pattern that "will confuse manufacturers."In contrast, when governments give a "very clear line," automakers can focus on execution, Li said.That inconsistency has real consequences, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said on the same panel."The back and forth policies at the national level have made it more difficult for industry to throw all in and ramp up the way that some of the Chinese companies have been able to," she added.Elaine Buckberg, former chief economist at General Motors, said on the panel that automakers typically plan vehicles five years before launch and expect to sell them for years afterward. Stable, long-term regulations are critical for companies expanding into EVs."Keeping those incentives stable, that's really powerful," she said. "That's a place where the US is really pulling back under the Trump administration."China has the lead over the US on EVsChina has a clear lead over the US in electric vehicles, Li and two of her co-panelists said.Li said consumer demand, rapidly improving technology, and China's dense charging network are accelerating adoption and making EVs a practical choice for everyday drivers.In China, EVs are not only bringing a "sustainable future," but also bringing "innovation," Li said.Industry leaders have been vocal about China's dominance in the global EV market.Ford CEO Jim Farley said in an episode of The Verge's "Decoder" podcast in September that "the Chinese are the 700-pound gorilla in the EV industry.""There's no real competition from Tesla, GM, or Ford with what we've seen from China. It is completely dominating the EV landscape globally and more and more outside of China," he added.Farley said that China has "great innovation at a very low cost," and that companies have "huge subsidies" and are sponsored by their local governments.China's government poured at least $230 billion into supporting domestic EV makers between 2009 and 2023, according to a 2024 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies."There's no secret magic thing that you're like, 'Oh, aha, they did this.' But rather it's the compounding benefits of a lower cost of capital," said Rivian's CEO, RJ Scaringe, in an episode of the "Everything Electric" podcast published in September.Read the original article on Business Insider

Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BIWhat do an employee at a dental imaging company, an English Premier League soccer player, and a saver with an account at BlackRock all have in common? They're all quietly connected to Wall Street's hottest investment class: private credit.The debt that most Americans have dealt with — from credit cards to mortgages — has been upfront: there are bills to pay, balances that are visible, and credit ratings that assess a borrower's creditworthiness. Private credit, or loans made to companies by private investor money gathered into a fund, is much less regulated and much more opaque. The exact terms of the loans, their price, and their ratings can be kept in the shadows and out of regulators' sight.Once a relative backwater in finance, private credit has grown into a $3 trillion industry that is increasingly intertwined with the economy. Small and midsize businesses are utilizing these loans to scale up, from manufacturing plants seeking to purchase new equipment to dental practices looking to expand. Meanwhile, private credit has become the hottest business for some of the finance industry's premier names, including Blackstone and Apollo. To proponents, like Apollo CEO Marc Rowan and Blue Owl co-CEO Mark Lipschultz, access to funding with less onerous requirements is helping American businesses thrive. To naysayers, including UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher and IMF Head Kristalina Georgieva, this explosion of less-transparent debt is unsustainable, and the dubious terms of many of these loans could lead to economic trouble.This fight has now reached a fever pitch as private credit prepares for a retail investor gold rush. There's already $80 billion in retail investor cash in private credit, but Deloitte projects that number will rise to $2.4 trillion by the start of the next decade, thanks to changing rules that will allow more everyday Americans to buy the assets. Depending on who you ask, putting private credit into regular Americans' retirement savings is the key to helping people achieve financial freedom or a recipe for disaster for the entire economy.A private credit primerAt its most basic, private credit involves pooling money from investors to then lend to businesses. To facilitate this transaction, an investment firm launches a fund and goes around to people or groups with money — pension funds, ultrawealthy individuals, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, and endowments — and gives them a sense of what sort of loans they want to make. Once enough investors agree to pony up, the fund then goes out and finds businesses that need a loan. It could be for hiring employees, building a new factory, or acquiring a competitor. In an ideal world, the loan enables the company to expand operations and revenue and repay the loan plus interest, which ultimately benefits the private credit fund and its own investors as a profit.Companies like these loans because they can be more flexible than bank loans, come together much more quickly, and can be more personalized. Private credit firms and the investors in their funds prefer these loans because the returns are more lucrative than public bonds, with interest rates charged to borrowers 1.5 to 3% higher.The modern private credit industry dates back to Michael Milken and the junk bond boom of the 1980s, but it really took off in the wake of post-2008 financial crisis banking regulations. New laws such as Dodd-Frank prompted banks to move away from risky loans, allowing lenders that didn't operate as banks, including private credit funds, to fill the gap. The idea was that only sophisticated institutional investors or fabulously wealthy individuals who could afford to risk losses would have their money on the line. McKinsey researchers estimated that the industry grew tenfold from 2008 to 2023, while Morgan Stanley analysts estimated that the industry expanded from $2 trillion in 2020 to $3…

AI cybersecurity is a top concern for some execs right now.Donato Fasano/Getty ImagesBusiness leaders at the World Economic Forum highlight AI security as a top concern.Executives like Raj Sharma and Tim Walsh emphasize risks from AI agents and quantum computing.Fighting AI risk could involve more AI.I'm reporting from Davos, Switzerland, where thousands of business leaders and politicians have arrived at the World Economic Forum to shake hands, talk shop, and maybe even eke out a few ski runs.Some executives I've spoken to this week had some big concerns about AI, but none of them had anything to do with a potential bubble.Raj Sharma, EY's global managing partner of growth and innovation, said there's not enough talk about AI security — specifically, the management of AI agents and their lifecycle."It has access to your data. It has no name, so there is no identity or anything associated with that," Sharma said.Compare that to humans, where every computer system and piece of data they touch is often tracked."We have to build industrial-level security for AI agents in that particular area. To me, that's still a gap that somebody needs to work on," Sharma said. "Everybody's talking a good game. But if you look under the covers, it's still not mature.""That keeps me up at night," Sharma added.He's not alone. Tim Walsh, the CEO of KPMG US, told me the biggest issue he talks to CEOs about regularly is cyber risk, specifically related to AI.AI agents are the latest twist in executives' ongoing concerns over cybersecurity, and it's proving to be an incredibly challenging problem. Somewhat ironically, the only way to fight the threat is with … more AI.In some cases, the risk has gotten so big that it's shifting timelines on companies' AI plans."It's not that they're not moving forward, but they are taking a moment to make sure that their environment is secure, and perhaps even leaving data on-prem a little bit longer so they're confident that got their data security in place," Walsh told me.Walsh said another "real concern" is the threat of quantum computing from a security perspective.While he acknowledged we're still a few years out from the tech being fully developed, its power is incredible."Quantum breaks everything," Walsh said. "I mean, all encryption."That's led companies to look at their systems and reencrypting things, no easy task."We're spending quite a bit of time as well, helping companies think through: What does that look like? How do you structure it? How long will it take?" Walsh said.Read the original article on Business Insider