The mountain resort of Sun Valley, Idaho, is a relatively remote destination for most of the year, with a population of less than 2,000 and no shortage of skiing and hiking routes. But in July, the town is briefly transformed into a global hub of dealmaking as the ultra-wealthy descend upon its nearby airport in a flurry of private jets to attend a conference known as the “summer camp for billionaires.”
Not much is publicly known about the inner workings of the annual Sun Valley conference, organized by the investment firm Allen & Co. Media access is restricted, photo-ops are limited, and the contents of its itinerary of meetings and lectures are kept private. But the deals that have materialized from the annual event, which include Jeff Bezos’ acquisition of The Washington Post and Disney’s acquisition of ABC/Capital Cities, indicate it is where much of the global elite do some of their most key networking.
This year’s conference will take place between July 9 and July 13, as reported by the Idaho Mountain Express, which noted that the local Friedman Memorial Airport is ready for its “annual fly-in event.” A roster of more than 60 media moguls, tech CEOs and industry power players are preparing to touch down later this month, according to guest lists reported by both Variety and Bloomberg.
Who is (and isn’t) attending this year?
Perhaps more notable than this year’s attendees are the omissions for Sun Valley’s 2024 guest list. Warren Buffett, a regular Sun Valley-goer whose wife Astrid was last year overheard complaining about the conference’s coffee prices, was conspicuously excluded. Elon Musk, too, was absent from the guest list despite having attended the event in 2022 to deliver a session where he was interviewed by Sam Altman.
Altman, however, has been invited to the upcoming summit, indicating that his company’s development of A.I. is undoubtedly set to be a hot topic. He will be joined by a group of Big Tech leaders actively participating in the A.I. race, including Meta (META)’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple (AAPL)’s Tim Cook and Google (GOOGL)’s Sundar Pichai.
Another invitee is Paramount Global chairwoman Shari Redstone, who is fresh off the heels of a canceled merger with Skydance Media. Redstone, who is still pursuing a sale of Paramount’s parent company National Amusement, will find no shortage of interested media executives milling around Sun Valley. Attendees will also likely be eyeing Disney’s Bob Iger for succession clues as he heads to the conference alongside Alan Bergman, Dana Walden, Josh D’Amaro and Hugh Johnston, all of whom have been suggested as potential replacements for Iger when he retires in 2026.
If Sun Valley is starting to sound like a scene from Succession, that’s because it is one—the fictional Roy family attended a parodied version of the conference during the television show’s second season. As one might expect, Rupert Murdoch, the inspiration for Succession character Logan Roy, is on this year’s guest list alongside his sons Lachlan and James and ex-wife Wendi.
Here’s a look at the rest of the moguls invited to the upcoming conference:
Tech
- Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
- Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta
- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MSFT)
- Jeff Bezos, executive chairman of Amazon (AMZN)
- Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon
- Tim Cook, CEO of Apple
- Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
- Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber (UBER)
- Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google
- Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir
- Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir and Founders Fund
- Brian Chesky, CEO of AirBnb (ABNB)
Media and entertainment
- Shari Redstone, chairwoman of Paramount Global
- Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp
- Lachlan Murdoch, chairperson of News Corp
- James Murdoch, former CEO of 21st Century Fox
- Jason Blum, CEO of Blumhouse Productions
- Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company (DIS)
- Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment
- Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment
- Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences
- Hugh Johnston, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Walt Disney Company
- David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)
- Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix (NFLX)
- Greg Peters, co-CEO of Netflix
- Brian Grazer, film and television producer
- Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast (CMCSA)
- Mike Cavanagh, president of Comcast
- Ynon Kreiz, CEO of Mattel
- Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation Entertainment
- Charles Rivkin, CEO of the Motion Picture Association
- Barry Diller, chairman of IAC
- Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global
- Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard (ATVI)
- Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube
- Anthony Wood, CEO of Roku
- Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify
- Kenichiro Yoshida, CEO of Sony
Politics
News media
- Oprah Winfrey, host of the Oprah Winfrey Show
- Michael Bloomberg, majority owner of Bloomberg L.P.
- Anderson Cooper, anchor of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
- Gayle King, co-host of CBS Mornings
- Elle Duncan, anchor of ESPN’s SportsCEnter
- Erin Burnett, anchor of CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront
- Becky Quick, co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box
- Andrew Ross Sorkin, columnist for The New York Times and co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box
- Evan Osnos, staff writer for The New Yorker
- Thomas Friedman, columnist for The New York Times
Higher education
Others
