Boardroom Talk: Davos 2026 - The Trump Show, but also a BRICS Ghost Town
In this episode of Boardroom Talk, Alec Hogg dissects the guest list for the 56th World Economic Forum in Davos—and finds a gathering that looks less like a global village and more like a victory lap for the new Western order.
The “Trump” Factor: How the return of Donald Trump, alongside leaders like Javier Milei and new Canadian PM Mark Carney, has turned Davos into a “fan club” for the populist right.
The BRICS Boycott: With no Xi Jinping, no Lula, and no Ramaphosa, is the “Spirit of Dialogue” actually just a Western monologue?
The AI Takeover: Why the real power brokers this year aren’t politicians, but tech titans like Jensen Huang and Satya Nadella.
SA’s Missed Open Goal: Why President Ramaphosa’s absence is a strategic failure right after South Africa’s removal from the EU high-risk list.
Alec argues that the WEF has fundamentally changed, perhaps explaining why his own invitation - serving a constituency in South Africa that’s not terribly appealing to the new WEF bosses - was rescinded after 19 years. Is this the end of the globalist era?
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Edited transcript of the interview
Boardroom Talk. Davos 2026. The Trump Show, but also the BRICS ghost town.
If you listen to the World Economic Forum’s press office, the 56th Annual Meeting in Davos, kicking off next week, is a triumph of participation. They are touting a record turnout: 400 top political leaders, nearly 65 heads of state, and close to 850 of the world’s most powerful CEOs.
The theme is a “spirit of dialogue”.
But if you take a closer look at the guest list, released this morning, you have to ask who exactly is having this dialogue.
Because from where I’m sitting, this does not look like a global village. It looks like a victory lap for the new Western order. A Donald Trump fan club meeting in the Swiss Alps.
What stands out is not just who is attending, but the deafening silence of those who are not.
Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad. After 19 years as a fully fledged participant, my invitation was rescinded for this event.
Not downgraded to reporting press. Not reduced to hanger-on status. Dropped entirely.
A voice in my head suggested someone powerful had whispered in the right ear and the new wife had listened. But now I know that was not the case.
My non-participation reflects something much bigger.
The WEF has been captured. Taken over, ironically, by those who loudly and publicly accused its founder, Klaus Schwab, of dark intent for trying to improve the state of the world.
The spirit of debate and inclusion has ended.
Little wonder that Schwab told me, when we spoke a few weeks ago, that he no longer recognises his own creation.
The headline act at Davos 2026 is undeniable and overwhelming: Donald Trump, back as President of the United States.
His presence changes the gravitational pull of the entire event.
Davos, once the temple of globalism and cooperation that Trump openly disdained, has pivoted to accommodate the new reality of Trumpism.
You only have to look at the supporting cast.
Argentina’s libertarian firebrand Javier Milei is returning, presumably to double down on the lecture he delivered to the socialist West last time. He was warmly applauded then. Expect cheers and a standing ovation this time.
Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz will attend, signalling a shift in Europe’s economic engine.
And perhaps most intriguing for Commonwealth watchers, Mark Carney is listed not as a central banker, as he was previously, but as Prime Minister of Canada.
The G7 is well represented, with six leaders attending.
But the flavour is very different from Davos five years ago.
This is a gathering of the survivors and victors of the populist wave.
It is a Western consolidation.
But if the West is circling the wagons, the Global South, of which South Africa is a determined and enthusiastic member, appears to have camped elsewhere.
The absence of BRICS heavyweights is stark.
There is no Xi Jinping.
No Lula da Silva.
And most worrying for us back home, no President Cyril Ramaphosa.
For a forum explicitly calling for cooperation in a more contested world, the absence of China, Brazil and South Africa turns dialogue into monologue.
If the goal is to navigate the economic, geopolitical and technological forces reshaping the global landscape, how do you do that when half the world’s population and a massive share of global GDP simply does not show up?
Even old Europe looks thinned out.
While Ursula von der Leyen represents the European Commission, the leaders of France and the UK are missing from the top billing.
It suggests a fracturing of the old Davos constituency.
If politics is polarised, business is unified around one thing: artificial intelligence.
The release of new models at unprecedented speed is front and centre, and the guest list confirms who the real power brokers are in 2026.
Jensen Huang of Nvidia.
Satya Nadella of Microsoft.
Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind.
The disruptors are there too. Dario Amodei of Anthropic and Alex Karp of Palantir.
With nearly 100 unicorn founders and tech pioneers attending, the corridor conversations will not be about ESG or stakeholder capitalism.
They will be about compute power, energy demand, and survival in the age of artificial general intelligence.
Bringing this back home, the absence of President Ramaphosa is a missed open goal.
Just this morning, South Africa was officially removed from the European Union’s list of high-risk jurisdictions. A major regulatory victory that ends years of friction for our financial sector.
The Treasury is rightly celebrating this, just as it did when the country exited the FATF grey list.
Davos would have been the perfect stage for a victory lap.
For Ramaphosa to shake hands with 850 CEOs and say: South Africa is open for business. Your banks can trust us again.
Instead, the chair is empty.
We are leaving that narrative to others.
The WEF’s new chair, Børge Brende, who succeeded Klaus Schwab, says dialogue is an urgent necessity.
He is not wrong.
But dialogue requires two sides.
What this guest list reveals is a bifurcation of the world order.
The West, led by a resurgent Trump administration and a shifted European leadership, is talking to itself and its tech titans.
The rest of the world is staying home.
As 3,000 participants descend on the snow-covered streets of Davos next week, champagne will flow and the spirit of dialogue will be toasted.
But without the BRICS.
Without the Global South.
And without dissenting voices.
One has to wonder whether Davos is no longer a forum for dialogue, but an echo chamber in a fragmented world.
I’m Alec Hogg for BizNews.com.