The World Economic Forum is an international non-governmental organization that convenes global leaders from business, government, academia, and civil society to address major challenges including AI governance and emerging technology risks.
The World Economic Forum is an international non-governmental organization that convenes global leaders from business, government, academia, and civil society to address major challenges including AI governance and emerging technology risks.
People
Updated 05/18/26Interim President and CEO
Former President and CEO
Founder
Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees
Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
- $469,000,000
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- -
- Funding Raised to Date
- -
Org Details
Updated 05/18/26The World Economic Forum (WEF) was founded in February 1971 by German economist Klaus Schwab as the European Management Forum, a symposium in Davos, Switzerland for European corporate leaders. It was renamed the World Economic Forum in 1987 and expanded its scope to include geopolitical dialogue and global issue-setting. Headquartered in Cologny, near Geneva, Switzerland, the WEF operates as an international non-governmental organization and foundation under Swiss law, funded primarily through membership fees from approximately 1,000 global corporations. The WEF's mission is to improve the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas. Its annual meeting in Davos draws around 3,000 participants including heads of state, CEOs, central bankers, and civil society leaders for up to five days of sessions on pressing global issues. As of 2024, the WEF employs approximately 990 staff from 97 nationalities, with around 780 based at its Geneva headquarters. On artificial intelligence, the WEF has become a major convening body for global AI governance. In June 2023, it launched the AI Governance Alliance (AIGA), a multistakeholder initiative dedicated to the responsible design, development, and deployment of AI. By early 2024 the Alliance had attracted over 250 members from more than 200 organizations across six continents, organized into three workstreams: Safe Systems and Technologies; Responsible Applications and Transformation; and Resilient Governance and Regulation. The WEF also manages the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) network, launched with a flagship centre in San Francisco in 2017. By early 2026 the network had expanded to 24 centres across five continents, addressing AI governance, cyber resilience, energy transition, and other frontier technology challenges at a regional level. In January 2026, the WEF announced five additional C4IR centres, including a European Centre for AI Excellence in Paris. The WEF publishes an annual Global Risks Report that consistently highlights AI-related risks, including AI-enabled misinformation (ranked the top global risk in 2025) and concerns about catastrophic misuse of AI systems. It also releases AI-focused research publications, playbooks for responsible AI innovation, and hosts global convenings such as the AI Safety Summits. The WEF reported consolidated revenues of CHF 469 million for financial year 2024-2025 (July 2024 to June 2025). In 2025-2026, the WEF underwent significant leadership transitions: founder Klaus Schwab stepped down as board chairman in April 2025, and president Børge Brende resigned in February 2026 following scrutiny of his past connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Alois Zwinggi became interim president, with Larry Fink and André Hoffmann serving as interim board co-chairs.
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26The WEF's theory of change for AI safety and governance is based on high-level multistakeholder convening and norm-setting. By gathering the world's most powerful business, government, and institutional leaders at forums like Davos and through bodies like the AI Governance Alliance, the WEF aims to build global consensus on responsible AI principles, governance frameworks, and standards before harms materialize at scale. The causal chain runs from elite dialogue and framework co-development, to adoption of shared standards by influential member organizations, to cascading policy and corporate adoption worldwide. On existential and catastrophic risk specifically, the WEF elevates these concerns in its Global Risks Report and through research on frontier AI governance, seeking to ensure that regulatory and industry frameworks anticipate systemic risks rather than responding after the fact.
Grants Received
Updated 05/18/26Projects
Updated 05/18/26A World Economic Forum multi-stakeholder initiative launched in June 2023 to provide guidance on the responsible design, development and deployment of generative AI systems, organized around three workstreams on safe systems and technologies, responsible applications and transformation, and resilient governance and regulation.
A European Centre for AI Excellence in Paris, created by the World Economic Forum in partnership with VivaTech as part of the C4IR global network to strengthen Europe’s AI leadership by driving responsible AI innovation, adoption and cross-border collaboration between business, policymakers and researchers.
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