Fourth of July has come and gone — and which means the swanky Sun Valley ski resort in Idaho is ready to host A-list moguls from across tech, media and business at Allen & Co.’s annual “summer camp for billionaires.”
The runway of nearby Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey, Idaho shall be clogged with private jets this week, with bigwigs like Disney’s Bob Iger and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg breaking out their shades, golf shirts and power vests – or perhaps a green, lizard-print, button-down, like Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett donned last 12 months.
The conference’s private events annually are a closely-guarded secret, however the titans set to take part in closed-door dealmaking and hobnobbing could also be more somber than usual as they stroll the grounds or grab a coffee.
Mergers and acquisitions — the bread-and-butter draw of Sun Valley — have dried up this 12 months as firms face a still-uncertain outlook. While markets have bounced back from last 12 months’s brutal selloff, tech giants like Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft are still smarting from massive layoffs as they slash spending and redouble their efforts on winning the bogus intelligence race.
Bob Iger and Tim Cook are mainstays at Sun Valley.Getty Images
Within the media sector, industry mainstays like Iger, who just ordered major job cuts at Disney properties comparable to ESPN, and WarnerBros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, whose ratings-challenged network CNN is the topic of sale rumors, are under pressure to show around their struggling empires.
In tech, Meta boss Zuckerberg is ready to attend just days after his company launched its Twitter-like social media app Threads in a direct challenge to Elon Musk. Threads has already gained greater than 100 million users – in addition to threats of legal motion from Musk.
AI will certainly be a key topic of dialogue. OpenAI’s head honcho Sam Altman is slated to be on the town for the gathering, as is Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, whose company has poured billions into the AI firm’s operations.
Warren Buffett wore an exotic lizard-print shirt ultimately 12 months’s event.Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook shall be on the town after steering the iPhone maker to an unprecedented $3 trillion market cap, as will Google boss Sundar Pichai, in accordance with a guest list published by Variety last month.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick shall be rubbing elbows at the same time as he awaits word on whether a federal judge will side with the Federal Trade Commission in its bid to dam the corporate’s sale to Microsoft for $69 billion. Tech investor Peter Thiel and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman also made the cut.
From the media world, distinguished figures comparable to Oprah Winfrey, Latest York Post and NewsCorp owner Rupert Murdoch and Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone were all invited to affix Iger and Zaslav on the event.
Shari Redstone is among the many media moguls on the guest list.Getty Images
Netflix execs Reed Hastings, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are set to attend alongside Hollywood mainstays like CAA’s Bryan Lourd, newly minted Biden re-election campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, famed producer Brian Grazer and plenty of others.
Sports leaders comparable to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred were tapped to attend.
Bob Iger shall be back at Sun Valley after returning as Disney CEO last 12 months.Getty Images
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, whose recent tie-up with the Saudi-backed LIV circuit has drawn Congressional scrutiny over “sportswashing” allegations, can also be on the list. Monahan returned to work last week after a temporary medical hiatus.
On the general public policy front, ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and former CIA head David Petraeus are amongst those that are said to have scored invitations.
Sun Valley can also be set to play host to distinguished journalists. Andrew Ross Sorkin, the Latest York Times’ “DealBook” columnist and CNBC host, is anticipated to point out up on the shindig, as is his “Squawk Box” co-anchor Becky Quick.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is pictured at Sun Valley in 2014.Getty Images
CNN personality Van Jones is on the roster, alongside his network colleague Erin Burnett, The Free Press founder Bari Weiss and CBS journalists Gayle King and David Begnaud.
Musk, a featured speaker ultimately 12 months’s festivities, was notably absent from the guest list. The Twitter owner’s appearance in Sun Valley last 12 months got here within the midst of his messy $44 billion Twitter takeover and just days after a report surfaced that he had fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, an executive at his brain chip company Neuralink.
The Sun Valley confab has served as the start line for major deals, each expected and unlikely, in years past. Major examples include Bezos’ deal to accumulate the Washington Post for $250 million or Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo for $4.8 billion.
