The world’s biggest media and tech moguls have landed in Sun Valley, Idaho for the annual billionaire CEOs’ conference that dates back to the 1980s. But some of the biggest names in business are missing from the guest list this year.
Known as the “summer camp for billionaires,” the Sun Valley conference — hosted by a boutique New York investment firm, Allen & Co. — is arguably more impactful than the World Economic Forum in Davos. Sure, Davos gives global company executives the chance to publicly talk about global issues — this year it drew 1,600 business leaders and 60 heads of state and government. But Sun Valley is where multi-billion dollar deals orchestrated by the biggest names in business are hammered out behind closed doors. The initial talks for such deals as Jeff Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post and Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal reportedly took place in Sun Valley. In the 1990s, Warren Buffett, a regular attendee of the conference, helped initiate talks between Disney and ABC that led to one of the largest deals ever (in 1995, at least).
But Buffett won’t be around to orchestrate any deals this year. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman and Tesla CEO may be regular attendees of the billionaires summer camp, but they aren’t on the guest list this year, Variety reported. Other Berkshire Hathaway executives will stand in for Buffett, who has reportedly struggled with poor balance (he is 93-years-old, after all) and previously relied on a golf cart to get around the conference. And last year, Buffett’s wife was overheard complaining about having to pay $4 for a cup of coffee, the New York Post reported at the time.
Elon Musk will also be absent for the second year in a row. The Tesla CEO made a splash in Sun Valley in 2022 when he dodged questions over his Twitter deal.
Here’s who is at the conference
- Bill Gates
- Jeff Bezos
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
- Apple CEO Tim Cook
- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
- National Amusements president Shari Redstone
- Disney CEO Bob Iger
- Blumhouse Productions CEO Jason Blum
- Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav
- Netflix CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters