Investors went to Davos looking for AI. They left talking about Greenland.

As I moved between panel meetings, hotel lobbies, and conferences this week, it often felt like two conferences were being held in the same snowy Swiss village.

At one Davos meeting, the atmosphere was surprisingly optimistic. Executives and investors talked about how artificial intelligence is moving from hype to practical application, with terms like “world model” and “physical AI” thrown around and discussions about the vast pools of capital ready to back it up.

On the other hand, much of the conversation seemed to come down to tariffs, Greenland, geopolitical tensions, and a growing sense that the global rules that investors have relied on for decades are changing in real time.

Both worlds always overlapped. Often within the same conversation.

“What Davos highlighted this year is not a crisis of innovation, but a crisis of consistency and loss of trust,” Chavarit Frederic Tsao, chairman of Tsao Pao Chee, a family-run trading company based in Singapore, said on the sidelines. “Technology is advancing faster than our collective intelligence.”

Tension between rapid innovation and political uncertainty characterized much of this week.

Thousands of people lined up for more than an hour at the Capitol on Wednesday to hear US President Donald Trump speak. We waited in line for 90 minutes. The atmosphere inside was more like a concert than a policy forum.

President Trump’s speech oscillated between humor, provocation and unpredictability. But when he turned to Greenland, arguing that the United States needed to acquire the Arctic island, the mood in the room changed.

The people who had been laughing just now became quiet. Some people shook their heads. The others exchanged anxious glances.

Over the next few hours, Greenland and tariffs seemed to dominate the conversation, moving from AI infrastructure and energy investments to trade leverage and political risks.

The next day, Elon Musk returned to Davos after years away from the Forum.

In a packed session, teslaCEO outlined an ambitious vision for robotaxis, humanoid robots, and AI development. He said Tesla’s driverless robotaxis will be “very popular” in the U.S. by the end of 2026. He also predicted that AI could surpass human intelligence as early as this year.

For many participants, it was a mood reset. The conversation then turned to data centers, battery storage, computing power, and how cities and power grids will cope with the expected surge in energy demand.

The difference from the day before was obvious.

One day, Davos was trying to make sense of the geopolitical implications of President Trump’s speech. Then the talk about the future of technology started at full speed.

That whiplash continued to show up in interviews throughout the week.

Waleed Al Mokharab Al Muhairi, deputy CEO of Abu Dhabi-based investment giant Mubadala, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy that his investment stance heading into 2026 can be summed up in two words: “belief-driven.”

“So it’s not that it’s chaotic, but it’s definitely becoming more fragmented,” he says.

“It comes with opportunities, but it also has pitfalls…as long as you can deploy your capital in a methodical, strategic, principled way, I think you can stay ahead of the pack.”

Meanwhile, Siemens Energy Chairman Joe Kaeser has positioned AI as an industrial opportunity rather than a consumer competition.

“No continent in the world has as much data on industrialization, mechanization and automation as Europe,” he told CNBC.

“This, combined with computing power, gives Europe the best option to define where the physical and virtual meet.”

Kaeser said leaders are still waiting to see if the policy announcements translate into action.

“The jury is still out on whether things will be implemented as announced,” he said. “But if one of our very important players doesn’t want to play, that’s bad for everyone.”

For finance ministers and other policymakers, many of the messages from this year’s Davos meeting were reassuring.

South Africa’s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana highlighted recent credit rating upgrades, South Africa’s removal from the US Financial Action Task Force’s gray list, and political stability, before the conversation turned to managing the relationship with the US and trade talks.

“The biggest risk to the South African economy is the geopolitical situation,” he told CNBC. “It’s hard to predict and we don’t know the impact.”

Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan reiterated the need for dialogue.

“What businesses need is certainty,” he said, adding that disputes should be resolved through dialogue.

By the end of the week, a clear pattern had emerged.

There were panels on display about AI, energy transition, and industrial reinvention. Private discussions focused on expansion, development, and long-term prospects.

But in less hectic moments over coffee, in the hallway, on the shuttle, the conversation returned to Greenland, tariffs, and how quickly policy changes the investment calculus.

One Davos conference focused on the frontiers of technology and what AI can unleash. The other focused on navigating geopolitical uncertainties and maintaining the enabling conditions for that progress.

Both unfolded at the same time, in the same village, and often in the same conversation.

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