What does Bill Gates have up his sleeve?

Swiss Image/World Economic Forum

"Come back, Bill Gates!"

That's the opening line from Brian Winter's illuminating profile of Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, "How Slim Got Huge," which ran in FP's November/December 2007 issue. Winter was pining away for Gates, a self-made billionaire who—unlike Slim—got rich thanks primarily to the power of his brain, not his Rolodex. 

Well, rumor has it Gates is looking to make a splash at this year's Davos: 

Gates, a loyal and normally upbeat participant, plans a potentially provocative speech titled "A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century." A spokesman for Microsoft was cagey about the details. But people involved in his appearance said Gates would take both big business and government to task for what he views as their inadequate response to the twin scourges of disease and poverty in the developing world.

World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab has granted Gates an unusual amount of time by Davos standards, 30 minutes starting at 12:20 p.m. EST on Thursday, to make his case. We'll be tuning in.