President Trump is scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, but who won’t?

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is among a growing number of political leaders, big name CEOs and technology pioneers headed to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting.

US President Donald Trump will also attend in person for the first time since speaking at the forum during his first term in 2020. His virtual address, delivered just days after re-entering the White House last year, shocked the event. The WEF says it will bring the “largest” U.S. delegation to date.

Davos organizers are eager to talk about the expected number of attendees, including “nearly 3,000 leaders from a wide range of fields,” plus a “record-breaking” 400 political leaders, 850 top corporate bosses and 100 tech pioneers. But the government at the center of the geopolitical conflagration will not be there.

Amid the escalating conflict over Greenland, representatives of the Danish government had been invited but decided not to attend, a WEF spokesperson said on Monday. The decision, which comes days after President Trump announced new tariffs on European countries resisting attempts to annex the Arctic island, underscores how tense the talks are likely to be. “Any decision regarding attendance is a matter for the relevant government. We can confirm that the Danish government will not be attending Davos this week,” a WEF spokesperson said in a statement.

Some of the people who don’t participate are big names.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is not on the list of WEF attendees, as are the leaders of Brazil and India.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italian leader Giorgia Meloni are not on the WEF list, but both are reported to be attending.

WEF organizers emphasized at a press conference last week that six of the G7 countries will send representatives in a “historic” move, according to WEF President Borge Brende.

In 2025, the only G7 leader to attend Davos in person was then-German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

In addition to President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are also expected to attend in person.

Downing Street has not confirmed whether British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will attend (he did not attend last year), but reports suggest he is expected to attend.

In an emergency press conference on Monday morning, Starmer referred to President Trump’s announcement that he would gradually expand tariffs on several European countries, including Britain, if Greenland is not sold to the United States, but Starmer did not directly answer the BBC’s question about whether he would consider meeting directly with Trump “this week.”

British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves will appear as a guest on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is not on the WEF list, but she is likely to remain in her country given Monday’s announcement of snap elections on February 8.

Davos will be held from Monday night until Friday morning. This year’s theme is “Spirit of Dialogue” and the agenda focuses on five areas: the geopolitical environment, AI, climate and nature, new sources of economic growth, and “human resources and preparedness.”

But Eric Kutcher, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, a “strategic partner” for the WEF, said the question of who will attend Davos will be of interest. “It’s going to be about who’s there,” he said in a video released by the company. “It’s much more so than what you see in Topics,” Kutcher said.

President Trump’s delegation is expected to include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner. The president is scheduled to speak in Davos on Wednesday.

WEF founder Klaus Schwab is one of the big names not attending Davos. Mr. Schwab ran the event for decades, but resigned in April following an investigation into allegations of misconduct. He was later cleared of “gross misconduct.”

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Roche Vice Chairman Andre Hoffman were announced as WEF’s interim co-chairs in August, and the organization’s new appointments are “making a real push to re-instill WEF’s economic direction, and in doing so bring on more CEOs,” Kutcher said.

Along with Mr. Huang of Nvidia, microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis are on the list of WEF attendees. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar will also be in attendance, but the company’s CEO Sam Altman will not be attending.

Key topics for the market include the US move to take over Greenland, political turmoil in Venezuela, and President Trump’s threat to use force against Iran. Investors will also be watching for announcements from AI companies, updates from central banks, and news about companies diversifying out of the US.

Although some big-name politicians won’t be attending, some of the leaders who will be attending, including Argentina’s Javier Millei and Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto, are “no small figures,” said Jan Aert Scholte, a professor of global change and governance issues at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

The government still sees Davos as a meeting place with businesses, he added. “Global capital remains a powerful force in world politics, even if large multinational corporations are less commonly accepted and admired than they were 20 to 30 years ago,” he told CNBC in an email Monday.

In addition to the nearly 65 heads of state scheduled to attend, the WEF will include key figures such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, but no other big names are on the list.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are not scheduled to speak. But Brende described the Indian delegation as “strong” and noted that leaders from other Asian economies, including Indonesia and Pakistan, would also be in attendance.

Chinese President Xi is not expected to attend, but Brende said a “large” Chinese delegation would attend, including Vice Premier for Trade and Finance He Lifeng, who is scheduled to speak at the event on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is not on the list of attendees at the WEF. However, several of the country’s ministers, including Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, will be interviewed by CNBC during the event.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday he would no longer attend the meeting after two high-speed trains collided in the country’s south on Sunday, killing 39 people.

Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK, is also expected to attend this year’s event. Mr Farage previously called Davos “elite” in a 2020 video and said the attendees were “the people who will decide our future in a Swiss ski resort”.

In fact, Scholte said Davos is seen by some as elitist and out-of-touch. “Nationalist-populist circles generally view the WEF as a beacon for liberal globalist elites who draw their ire,” he told CNBC via email.

-CNBC’s Leonie Kidd contributed to this report.