Large investments in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies could lead to the development of bubbles, according to World Economic Forum president Børge Brende.
“There is definitely a geopolitical disorder … But even in the situation of geopolitical disorder, the global economy has been incredibly resilient – not necessarily in Europe but in India, China and the USA,” Brende said in Berlin.
He noted that this was being fuelled by investments in new technologies like AI.
“This year has seen $US500 billion ($A762 billion) of investments in AI alone. So, what we can be worried about is that there may be bubbles developing, be it a bubble on crypto or an AI bubble,” Brende said.
The WEF head said investors need to be patient with these investments.
But he also said that frontier technologies would be the new drivers of growth.
“We will also need to make sure that the new technologies and the benefits trickle down. We could even see productivity gains of 10 per cent in the coming decade. And productivity is prosperity,” Brende said.
He described the new technologies as “a big paradigm shift” and predicted breakthroughs in medicine, synthetical biology, space and energy.
“AI can accelerate processes so quickly,” he said.
The Norwegian has taken over from WEF founder Klaus Schwab.
The forum holds an annual conference in Davos in the Swiss Alps attended by world political and economic leaders.
The 56th conference is scheduled for January 19-23, 2026.
Brende also expressed concern about global crises and conflicts.
“There is definitely a geopolitical disorder: the world order we had is not there anymore. What is the next world order? Hopefully not the law of the jungle,” he said.
And, in a reference to current US tariff policy, he said that uncertainty was the highest tariff.
“One of my worries is that global investments are going down. We need to re-establish an environment for investments,” he said.
Brende said the current competition between the United States and China was “basically a competition for hegemony or dominance in technology. The country that leads in new technologies – be it quantum, superintelligence, AI, autonomous vehicles or synthetical biology – will also be the most powerful nation coming out of this century,” he predicted.
And he called for multilateral action to deal with “problems that don’t travel with a passport,” including pandemics and cybercrime.
The world is becoming more complicated with different groups forming, Brende said.
He pointed to a G4 of the US, China, Europe and India, followed by fast-growing economies like Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Brazil.
“It’s going to be a renaissance for mega-regional, so-called plurilateral, deals. But the world is going to be more complicated. There are going to be more suboptimal, not necessarily cost-effective solutions. There is going to be more friendshoring,” he said.
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