The 2026 Bilderberg Conference was held between 9–12 April 2026 at the Salamander Washington DC Hotel in Washington, D.C., United States. The 2026 meeting was the 72nd edition of the event. A Bilderberg Group press release listed 128 participants from 23 countries and territories. This was the second conference to take place at the Salamander Hotel after the 2022 edition.
Established in 1954 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Bilderberg conferences (or meetings) are an annual private gathering of the European and North American political and business elite. Events are attended by between 120 and 150 people each year invited by the Bilderberg Group's steering committee; including prominent politicians, CEOs, national security experts, academics and journalists.
Bilderberg conferences operate under the Chatham House Rule, meaning that participants are sworn to secrecy and cannot disclose the identity or affiliation of any particular speaker. As a result, media are not invited and delegates rarely speak about what was discussed.
Agenda Key topics for discussion were announced on the Bilderberg website shortly before the meeting. These topics included:
AI Arctic Security China Digital Finance Energy Diversification Europe Global Trade The Middle East Russia Trans-Atlantic Defence-Industrial Relationship Ukraine United States Future of Warfare The West
Participants A list of 128 participants was published on the Bilderberg website. This list may not be complete, as a source connected to the Bilderberg group told The Daily Telegraph in 2013 that some attendees do not have their names publicized.
Peter Bosek
Gerhard Zeiler
Thomas Leysen Petra De Sutter
Chrystia Freeland
Jeppe Christiansen
Margrethe Vestager (international) Nadia Calviño Andrius Kubilius
Erkki Liikanen Alexander Stubb Elina Valtonen
Henri de Castries Roland Lescure Catherine MacGregor Ross McInnes Arthur Mensch Patrick Pouyanné Nicolas Roche fr Luis Vassy
Roland Busch Mathias Döpfner Jeanette zu Fürstenberg Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg Uwe Horstmann Gundbert Scherf Christian Sewing Oliver Zipse
Dimitri Papalexopoulos Kyriakos Pierrakakis Costantza Sbokou-Constantakopoulou
Vivian Motzfeldt International Energy Agency (international) Fatih Birol
Jack Chambers Patrick Collison Anne Heraty Colin Hunt Danny McCoy
Marco Alverà Vittorio Colao Enrico Letta Silvia Maria Rovere Valentino Valentini (international) Markus Laubenthal Geoffrey van Leeuwen Mark Rutte
Rob Jetten Sigrid Kaag Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands Queen Máxima of the Netherlands Rolly van Rappard
Øyvind Eriksen Jens Stoltenberg Nicolai Tangen
Adam Bartosiewicz Wojciech Kostrzewa Jacek Olechowski Radoslaw Sikorski
José Manuel Barroso Duarte Moreira Guta Moura Guedes
José Luis Escrivá
Alberto Nadal
Daniel Ek Pål Jonson Marcus Wallenberg
Helene Budliger André Hoffmann André Kudelski
Ali Koç Murat Özyeğin Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu Mehmet Tara Ayse Zarakol
Oleksandr Kamyshin Iryna Terekh
Murray Auchincloss Camilla Cavendish Demis Hassabis David Lammy Blaise Metreweli Zanny Minton Beddoes Gideon Rachman John Sawers Mark Sedwill Mark Tucker
Stacey Abrams Anne Applebaum Albert Bourla Douglas Burgum Jack Clark Daniel P. Driscoll Elizabeth Economy Niall Ferguson Rana Foroohar Jamieson Greer Kevin Harrington Kimberly Kagan Alex Karp David Kirtley Stephen Kotkin Michael Kratsios Henry R. Kravis Marie-Josée Kravis Robert Lighthizer Brett McGurk John Micklethwait Mira Murati Peter R. Orszag Samuel Paparo Skye Perryman Nadia Schadlow Brian Schimpf Eric E. Schmidt Terri Sewell Faryar Shirzad Brad Smith Jason Smith Alexandr Wang Fareed Zakaria
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