Live updates: Musk’s surprise appearance, Newsom’s Trump spat, and post-Trump reckonings

The world's power players and top executives braced for what Trump would say — or not say — about Greenland on Wednesday. Now that the speech is done and dusted, the sun dawns on Davos, bringing forth another day of discussion on the top topics in tech, governance, and the markets.

We'll be bringing you live updates throughout day four of Davos right here. Follow along for the latest.

'I don't think it's going to put everyone out of work,' says White House AI czar David Sacks on AI

David Sacks spoke on Wednesday at the USA House alongside Michael Kratsios, the White House's director for science and tech policy. He pushed back on the most alarmist interpretations of Elon Musk's warnings about AI and jobs, arguing they strip out a crucial part of Musk's broader vision.

According to Sacks, Musk isn't predicting a sudden mass-unemployment crisis so much as a radically different economic system, closer to a "Star Trek"-style world where technology supplies basic needs.

"Look, I think that Elon is directionally correct about the future. I think we are heading towards a country of abundance. Rising living standards for everybody, greater productivity. I think that will lead to rising wages. I don't think it's going to put everyone out of work."

Davos has turned into a tech conference

I've usually thought of Davos as being more dominated by finance and blue-chip companies, but clearly, tech has taken over.

Walking down the main thoroughfare in Davos is always fun because all the shops that are open the rest of the year are taken over this week by companies that host "houses" to showcase their brands and host clients and events.

Walking along the street this year, it seems like 80% of the houses are tech. Palantir and Meta (with its free hot chocolate stand) had the most visible presence. Amazon's house was surprisingly small. Google was far away from the main action. Lightspeed was the only venture capital firm I saw, with its odd retro "Lighthouse."

It is also interesting to see who is not here. OpenAI has no house, and Sam Altman did not come, though some executives are here. Elon Musk was not originally part of the program but was a last-minute addition today.

Davos feels like San Francisco this week

There were so many techies here that sometimes I felt like I was in San Francisco.

I asked a couple of startup founders why they came so far to be here, and the consensus was that there's nothing like Davos for the efficiency of meeting potential customers and investors who are all packed into a tiny Swiss village for the week.

Waiting in the cold in a long line for a party for General Catalyst and Lightspeed, I asked one founder why he traveled here.

He told me Alexandr Wang, founder and former CEO of Scale AI, who is now Chief AI Officer at Meta, advised him that Davos was highly useful because Wang said last year he signed almost a third of Scale's customers in the short time he was there.

Harvey cofounder CEO Winston Weinberg told me that dealmaking started even before I arrived, with many transactions happening in the business-class sections of flights to Zurich from San Francisco and New York.

Digital twins are the hot new thing in robotics

Jamie Heller, Business Insider's editor in chief, led a panel on smart factories that dove into the future of physical AI and what's needed before robots become mainstream in homes and factory floors.

One phrase dominated her conversation: digital twins. Execs from Siemens, Agility Robotics, and Automation Anywhere agreed that what once sounded like a possibility in the distant future is now delivering real productivity gains.

"You want to have this digital twin alive once you are running your production because it allows you to optimize all the time," Siemens' CEO Roland Busch said. "If you make a change, if there's something going wrong, you see real-time what's happening on the shop floor."

Gavin Newsom: It's 'the rule of Don' in the US

California Gov. Gavin Newsom spent most of his 30-minute interview at Davos with Semafor's editor in chief slamming President Donald Trump and the administration. The US is living under "the rule of Don" rather than the rule of law, Newsom said.

"Co-equal branches of government, the rule of law, popular sovereignty," he said. "Tell me that that reflects the America you read about today."

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The ElonJet is in the air

Flight data from ADS-B Exchange showed that Musk's private jet, a Gulfstream G650, took off from San Jose International Airport Wednesday night, local time, and is traveling east.

It's not yet clear whether Musk is on the aircraft, but he's scheduled to appear on a panel with Larry Fink at 4:30 p.m., Swiss time.

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Cisco's president: 'I don't want anyone to be a full-time manager'

Management is a bug, not a feature, in a career path at Cisco.

Jeetu Patel, Cisco's president and chief product officer, is a big proponent of the great flattening. In fact, if you're only managing people at Cisco, you're doing something wrong.

"I want everyone to be a player-coach. I don't want anyone to be a full-time manager. We don't need full-time managers at Cisco," he told me on Wednesday.

He called the philosophy "foundational" to Cisco. People need to think about how they want to change the world and what they can do to contribute to that change, rather than focusing on specific job titles.

"If in the pursuit of that change, you have to go out and reluctantly manage some people, then go ahead and do that," Patel said. "But management, in and of itself, is not a full-time job."

JPM's top European bankers on clients' uncertainty

Conor Hillery and Matthieu Wiltz are well-versed in how European investors are feeling.

JPMorgan's co-CEOs of EMEA took a two-week trip across Europe and the Middle East to meet with clients at the start of the year. It corresponded with escalating geopolitical situations in Venezuela and Greenland, making for a unique trip.

When I spoke to them on Wednesday morning, before Trump's speech, they told me clients aren't necessarily looking to pull the plug on things, but the questions are mounting.

"I think it's just raising the spectre of uncertainty, so clients aren't making any definitive assumptions at this stage," Hillery told me. "In the back of their heads, they are starting to think that this could get a lot more complicated than it's been for the last few years."

And even since the trip, the situation is evolving almost minute by minute.

"There is a bit more of a question mark now compared to the first two weeks of January," Wiltz added.

Newsom: 'I'm living rent-free in Trump's head'

There was a bit of show-and-tell from the California governor at his morning session. He took out a set of red kneepads, which he said are meant for the CEOs who kneel to Trump. He also accused some corporate leaders — he didn't name them — of "selling out to this administration."

No shortage of jabs at Trump, too. The governor called Trump an "invasive species," among other things.

"I'm living rent-free in Trump's head," Newsom said.

Musk has slammed Davos in the past

He posted negatively about the forum in 2022 and 2023.

My reason for declining the Davos invitation was not because I thought they were engaged in diabolical scheming, but because it sounded boring af lol

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2022

Elon Musk will speak at Davos

Musk is a new addition to the programme — he's now listed to speak with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at 4:30 p.m.

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Business Insider was in the room at Trump's speech, and this is what went down

Business Insider's Ben Bergman brought us to-the-minute updates from inside the room where Trump gave his speech.

Great to start my day in Davos for the second day in a row with @Elex_Michaelson.
Today I shared what it was like to be in the room for President Trump’s lengthy address. pic.twitter.com/MmEjTEBgea

— Ben Bergman (@thebenbergman) January 22, 2026

Check out the full story, too.

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Now it's Gavin Newsom's moment to shine

Newsom sparred with Scott Bessent and, on Wednesday, stared into the camera in the middle of Trump's speech with a wry, knowing smile — giving his best imitation of Jim from "The Office."

rent free pic.twitter.com/lLB7uVydkf

— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 21, 2026

The California governor has also been making his rounds with the press, giving snappy soundbites about how the Democratic Party and world leaders should best deal with the president.

This morning in Davos, Newsom will get his share of the spotlight. He's scheduled for a panel at 8:30 a.m. local time.

It was all about Trump on Wednesday

ICYMI, though we don't know how you could've.

After a slight hiccup in his travel plans due to an electrical fault on Air Force One, President Donald Trump and his team swept into Davos on Wednesday for a much-anticipated speech.

The reactions? Mixed. Business Insider was in the room for his speech, and we fact-checked the president's praise for the US economy.

And after all the panic over Greenland, Trump called off his new tariffs on Europe. There's to be a "framework" in place, per an agreement with NATO, with more to come on what that'll mean.

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