Elon Musk makes surprise Davos appearance in striking reversal

Elon Musk made a surprise World Economic Forum appearance in Davos Thursday after publicly criticizing the annual gathering of political and business elites for years.

“Speaking @wef in 20 mins. What should I say?” he wrote on X with an emoji.

It marks Musk’s first Davos visit as the world's richest person joined BlackRockCEO Larry Fink on a panel.

Musk spoke of his plans for his self-driving technology in Europe, saying he’s hopeful Tesla will get approval by next month.

He also cracked a joke about President Donald Trump’s recent aggression toward Venezuela and Greenland, calling out the president’s new “Board of Peace.”

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“I heard about the formation of the peace summit, and I was like, is that p-i-e-c? You know, a little piece of Greenland, a little piece of Venezuela,” he said.

“All we want is peace,” he added as the audience chuckled.

He took a swipe at Trump’s tariffs, saying, “Unfortunately in the U.S., the tariff barriers for solar (panels) are extremely high.

“And that makes the economics of deploying solar artificially high, because China makes almost all the solar and the tech.”

Musk's appearance at Davos comes as he continues to play a key role in several global debates, including SpaceX's supply of satellite internet to conflict zones and public criticism over sexualized images generated by Grok, a chatbot developed by his AI startup xAI.

In the past few years, Musk has been one of the WEF's most prominent critics, regularly criticizing the annual Davos gathering as elitist, unaccountable and disconnected from ordinary people.

Musk has repeatedly mocked Davos on his social media platform X, calling it "boring" and saying the WEF is "an unelected world government that the people never asked for and don't want."

The Tesla CEO's status as a Trump ally has elevated his political clout, giving him an unusual degree of influence over policy discussions spanning technology, defense and global communications.

Several of Musk's companies are of direct interest to governments, including SpaceX, a major U.S. defense contractor whose Starlink network operates in conflict zones, and X, the social media platform he controls, where changes to moderation policies have drawn criticism over misinformation and hate speech.

Trump spoke at Davos Wednesday, insisting the US is the only country that can secure Greenland. He made his pitch for taking over the island, and hours later, announced he was ditching planned tariffs on European nations that supported Greenland.

Trump said a “framework of a future deal” for Greenland has been reached.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte revealed the initial details of the possible deal after holding discussions with Trump at Davos Wednesday.

Rutte said Nato allies would be required to step up their presence in the Arctic under the framework discussed with Trump. The extra details would be worked out with the alliance’s senior commanders “within months,” he added.