'Billionaire Social Gathering' US Hosts 'Sun Valley Conference'... Big Tech CEOs Assemble

Held from 12th to 14th... Altman, Zuckerberg, and others attending
Musk absent... "Merger talks likely less than before"

The Sun Valley Conference in the United States, a social gathering of global IT and media industry giants, is being held for three days starting on the 12th (local time), drawing attention to the conversations that will take place. Since global company leaders gather in one place, merger and acquisition (M&A) discussions have often occurred, but this year, considering the economic situation such as high inflation and high interest rates, it is expected that such discussions will not be actively conducted.

According to Bloomberg News and the New York Post, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT, appeared at an event held on the 11th in Sun Valley, Idaho, the day before the conference. Wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt and blue slacks, he appeared comfortably and had a brief conversation with reporters.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI [Photo by Reuters]

Following CEO Altman, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone, and Disney Chairman Bob Iger also appeared at the venue in casual attire such as short sleeves and shorts, attracting attention.

Reports say that 'regular guests' Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MS), will also appear this year. Additionally, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, MS CEO Satya Nadella, and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg will attend the event as in previous years.

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and the world's richest person who attracted attention last year by attending with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, is reported to be absent this year. Accordingly, an on-site meeting with Zuckerberg, who recently launched the social networking service (SNS) 'Threads' to pressure Twitter and engaged in a 'fighting verbal battle,' is unlikely to take place.

Rupert Murdoch, a 'media mogul' and a regular guest at the event, is reported by U.S. entertainment media Variety to be absent again this year following last year.

The Sun Valley Conference is a private event hosted annually since 1983 by the U.S. investment firm Allen & Company at the resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho. It is called the 'summer camp' of giants, as many media and IT industry leaders gather. During the event, they enjoy sports such as tennis and golf together and freely share their thoughts through discussion sessions on various topics.

In South Korea, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong described it as "the business trip I care about the most during the year" and attended the event almost every year from 2002 to 2016.

The reason this event attracts great attention is that global company leaders have sometimes conducted and finalized M&A discussions while meeting and talking directly. Notable examples include Disney's acquisition of ABC Broadcasting in 1996 and Bezos's acquisition of The Washington Post (WP) in 2013. At that time, Bezos met with Donald Graham, chairman of The Washington Post, and after about three hours of conversation, decided to acquire without separate negotiations.

Although some attendee lists are disclosed through media reports and photos often show attendees wandering the venue in casual attire, the event is held privately, allowing company leaders to meet directly and have candid conversations, making merger discussions relatively easy to conduct.

However, Bloomberg forecasted, "Usually, mergers are finalized with handshakes at this event, but this year, due to the economic situation, it is not a suitable time for deals, and the atmosphere may be quite different because of high inflation and high interest rates."

Foreign media expect that conversations about AI issues, which heated up the first half of this year, will take place at this event. Discussions related to the complex streaming industry are also predicted. In addition, some company leaders, such as Disney, who need to resolve major executive succession issues, may meet other company leaders at this event to solve these problems.

Meanwhile, as the Sun Valley Conference gathers global company leaders in one place, a spectacular scene unfolds just before the event, with chartered planes carrying global company leaders arriving one after another in the area. The U.S. economic media Business Insider reported that from the morning of the 11th, over 40 private charter and corporate jets arrived at nearby Friedman Memorial Airport, and at least 100 more private planes are expected to arrive on that day alone.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.