Davos updates: Trump lands in Switzerland after Air Force One problems delay the president

Away from hype about Trump’s arrival, Davos is still carrying on as normal.

On a panel this morning, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang described AI as the biggest infrastructure buildout in human history — and one he sees creating a jobs boom for those with the right skillset.

“It’s wonderful that the jobs are related to tradecraft and we’re going to have plumbers and electricians and construction and steelworkers,” he said in a conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

Huang said the US was seeing a “significant boom” in this area, with salaries nearly doubling in some cases. “So we’re talking about six-figure salaries for people who are building chip factories or computer factories or AI factories, and we have a great shortage in that,” added Huang.

“Everybody should be able to make a great living. You don’t need to have a PhD in computer science to do so.”

Air Force Two touched down in Zurich at 12:35 p.m. local time after an eventful journey.

President Donald Trump’s original airplane departed about 10 hours ago, but it turned around due to a “minor electrical issue.” He has instead flown to Switzerland on a Boeing C-32A, which is typically used for the Vice President’s Air Force Two.

His journey has taken over three hours longer than first expected. Now, there’s another 75 miles to reach Davos, most likely by helicopter.

Congress Hall is now being cleared ahead of President Donald Trump’s speech.

One security guard told me the speech would be on time despite the electrical problems on AF1, but we still haven’t heard official word from WEF.

As Trump seeks Greenland, insisting that it’s key for protection against Russia and China, his allies don’t actually disagree with his security concerns. His methods are causing great tension among his allies, but they agree that the Arctic is an area of risk.

“I think President Trump is right. Other leaders in NATO are right. We need to defend the Arctic,” as China and Russia increase their presence there, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a Wednesday morning appearance at Davos.

“For the United States to stay safe, you need a safe Arctic, a safe Atlantic, and a safe Europe.”

He described that as a process that’s underway: “We are working on that, making sure that collectively we will defend the Arctic region.”

Finland, one of the NATO member states in the Arctic, agreed, and President Alexander Stubb framed it as a chance to strengthen Arctic security within the alliance. He expects tensions with the US to de-escalate, “I think at the end of the day, we’ll find an off-ramp on this.”

After an electrical issue on Air Force One delayed the president overnight, a replacement plane, a Boeing C-32A, was scrambled into action to bring him to Europe.

As of around midday Swiss time, the jet, a modified Boeing 757 often used as Air Force Two, was still in the air, flying close to Paris and heading for Zurich airport, where it looks likely to land within the next hour.

If, like many high-profile World Economic Forum attendees, Trump travels by helicopter from Zurich airport, it would take about another 30 to 40 minutes to reach Davos.

That could put him in the Swiss Alps just before 1.30 p.m. CET, and he is scheduled to speak at 2:30 p.m. CET.

However, there will likely be further added time due to security and other preparations.

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In short, we don’t exactly know.

No clear indication has been given of what the president plans to discuss in his special address to the Davos crowd. It seems highly likely, however, that his desire to make Greenland part of the USA, the diplomatic furore it has ignited, and new tariffs on Western allies, will be front and center.

Other topics he could touch on include his first year in office, the affordability crisis, and the rising deficit in the US.

Tuesday will go down as the day global financial markets finally started paying attention to Trump’s Greenland threats. As Business Insider’s Jennifer Sor noted yesterday, stocks tumbled in one of the worst days for the US market since April 2025. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq dropped more than 2%, while the Dow wasn’t far behind, losing 1.8%.

Things are looking much calmer so far on Wednesday, with investors seemingly in a classic holding pattern ahead of the president’s speech later. Futures for all three major US indexes are pointing to a slightly higher open, with expected gains of around 0.2%. In Europe, where markets are open, major indexes in the UK, France, and Germany are marginally lower, but little moved.

Futures for the S&P 500 VIX, a widely-watched measure of market volatility, are down around 2%.

President Donald Trump’s hugely anticipated speech this afternoon is dominating the conversation at Davos, but due to an electrical issue with Air Force One overnight, the president is many hours behind schedule.

Trump was due to speak at 2:30 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. ET), but according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, he’s likely to be around three hours behind.

While we don’t yet have any confirmation of a change in schedule, Bessent’s timings would put Trump’s speech at 5:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. ET).

In a statement to Business Insider, the World Economic Forum said it is “in close contact with the US delegation and will provide an update should there be any changes to the President’s schedule or related programme arrangements.”

Business Insider is tracking the US military jet carrying Trump over the Atlantic closely, and we’ll keep you updated on his progress.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, told the European Parliament that there has now been a “seismic” and “permanent” shift in the international order.

“And the sheer speed of change far outstrips anything we have seen in decades. We now live in a world defined by raw power — whether economic or military, technological or geopolitical,” von der Leyen said in Strasbourg, France, hours before Trump’s big Davos speech.

“And while many of us may not like it, we must deal with the world as it is now,” she said.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is the latest to push back on the idea that the AI boom is destined to pop like past manias.

“I think there will be big failures, but I don’t think we are in a bubble,” Fink said on a panel on Wednesday morning.

Fink’s comments came amid a broader debate about whether massive investments in AI are sending the stock markets into a bubble.

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Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said Russia’s economy has started to “flash red.” He cited agreement among many economists that it “will have resources to continue for at least 12 months or more.”

It’s not that Russia doesn’t have the resources to continue its war after that point. However, it will have much harder decisions to make, “painful choices” like cutting spending on infrastructure and healthcare.

“It’s clear that this era of maintaining stability and funding a very costly war is over,” Gabuev said.

Moldovan Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu said at the same panel that the Russian economy’s “expansionist model” is unsustainable in the long term.

“It’s not the question whether it’s going to collapse, it’s the question when it’s going to happen,” Munteanu said.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had something to say about Denmark ahead of Trump’s arrival.

“Denmark’s investment in US Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant,” Bessent told reporters at a morning press conference.

He was responding to a Tuesday announcement from the Danish pension fund AkademikerPension that it would sell $100 million in US Treasurys.

“They’ve been selling Treasurys for years, I’m not concerned at all,” Bessent said.

Newsom has been swinging around Davos, almost as a Democratic counterweight to Trump.

“He is here hobnobbing with the global elite while his California citizens are still homeless. Shame on him. He is too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything,” Bessent said of Newsom.

Newsom on Tuesday evening had made an X post calling Bessent a “smug man” who’s “out of touch.”

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said at a panel on Wednesday morning that he thinks “we need to spend more money to make sure that we’re competing properly against China.”

There are two big factors at play here, Fink said. The first: Can the West grow economies fast enough to overcome deficits?

“That can be one big issue, especially with the rising deficits of the US,” Fink said.

Secondly, another limiting factor is whether Western economies can make a J-curve of demand happen for AI and other technologies.

“The key to that is making sure that the demand only comes if technology is diffused for more applications, more utilizations,” Fink said. “If technology is just the domain of the six hyperscalers, we will fail.”

Tax us — that’s the message from nearly 400 wealthy people, who’ve signed an open letter addressed to the leaders gathering at Davos.

The letter’s co-signees called out a “handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth,” accusing them of harming society as a whole across governance, tech, innovation, and the environment.

The solution, per the letter, comes down to one thing — taxing the superrich.

Signatories include the actor Mark Ruffalo, film producer and activist Abigail Disney, and musician Brian Eno.

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“I believe President Trump is going to be about 3 hours late,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a morning presser. “I haven’t seen the updated schedule.”

ICYMI: Trump had to switch planes after an electrical fault was detected on board Air Force One.

David Steinbach, Hines’ global chief investment officer, didn’t mince words when describing the overall real-estate environment.

“It’s been a really bad few years, honestly,” Steinbach told me. “Really beginning in 2022.”

Rising geopolitical tensions and the siloing of regions can make the environment even trickier. Especially for a company with over $90 billion of assets across 30 countries. Still, Steinbach told me that Hines raised about 50% more discretionary capital year over year in 2025.

“There’s a risk and opportunity, right? The risk is it’s now different. And that’s probably not changing anytime soon,” Steinbach said. “The opportunity is a lot needs to be built now, because you’ve got supply chains that need to get re-looked. You got very directive investments in-country.”

“That’s creating a lot of demand as well,” Steinbach added.

On the schedule for Wednesday: Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

Trump ran into some travel trouble en route to Davos late Tuesday. He was forced to switch from Air Force One to a backup plane after an electrical fault was detected on board. Flight maps show Air Force One making a U-turn over the waters off Long Island, then landing back in Washington, D.C.

The president is now back on the road and on his way to Switzerland.

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The police in Zurich deployed a water cannon after anti-Trump protests got chaotic, according to multiple reports from local media outlets.

Videos from the scene showed protesters holding up banners, including one that read: “TRUMP NOT WELCOME.”

Zurich is a two-hour drive from Davos. It’s likely that the president will face much less resistance at the ski resort, where executives are clamoring to meet him.