Capitalism must evolve so that more people can benefit from economic success rather than watching from the sidelines, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest investment firm, said in a keynote speech at the Davos forum.
Fink became the "Mayor of Davos" in 2025 to replace Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, who stepped down. Fink posted the full text of his speech for the opening of this year's WEF on LinkedIn. Oninvest briefly recounts its content.
- This year, Davos hosted the leaders of 65 states and governments and almost a thousand CEOs, including the most innovative start-ups. Not counting the United Nations, Davos is the largest gathering of world leaders in the post-World War II era. "But does anyone outside this hall care?" - Fink asks. In an era of populism and declining trust in institutions, he says, many criticize Davos for being out of step with the zeitgeist, and there is some truth to their criticism.
"Clearly, the world today has much less confidence in us to help shape the future"
- The problem with the forum is that it is now "a gathering of elites trying to shape a world that belongs to everyone," says the head of BlackRock. Welfare expansion is the main challenge Davos must address to restore trust, he says.
"Wealth cannot be measured only by gross domestic product or the market capitalization of the largest companies. It should be measured by how many people can see it, feel it, and build a future based on it"
More wealth has been created in the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall than in all of previous history, but that wealth has gone to "a much narrower circle of people than a healthy society can sustain," Fink says. Artificial intelligence now threatens to repeat the same scenario.
"That's the test: whether capitalism can evolve to appropriate economic growth to a larger share of people - and leave them as spectators watching from the sidelines"
- Another challenge that needs to be addressed is to broaden the discussion. According to Fink, Davos cannot be a platform where 95% of the time everyone agrees with each other.
"The goal is understanding. It is the ability to be around people with whom we disagree, to take their arguments seriously, and to be willing to recognize that they may see something we don't"
- The head of BlackRock also called for listening to people and viewpoints that are often ignored.
"The world needs more constructive conversations between people who don't normally talk to each other. I think most people - at least on an intellectual level - realize that finding common ground with a stranger is reassuring. It restores a little faith in humanity. But how often does it happen in practice? Hopefully now - a little more often."
The Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, runs from January 19-23 under the slogan "In the Spirit of Dialogue." Among the leaders expected at the forum are Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Xavier Mealey, and Vladimir Zelensky.Trump is expected to deliver a speech on Wednesday, January 21. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia head Jensen Huang, Amazon executives Andy Jassy, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp, and top executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Mistral AI, and other companies are also expected to speak at the forum.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
