2024 Sun Valley Conference: Biggest names in attendance, and notably absent

Every year, an A-list group of CEOs, billionaire investors, university leaders and politicians gather at Allen and Co.’s Sun Valley Conference. in Sun Valley, Idaho, for what many have labeled a “billionaire summer camp.” ” It is a notoriously private event that has been closed to the press since its inception in 1983, but the deals made within this summer camp often have far-reaching global impacts. Jeff Bezos has famously encountered his details Washington Post purchase of Sun Valley in 2013, for example, and Disney and ABC executives did something similar in the weeks before their 1995 merger.

This year, the guest list at the exclusive event will be as impressive as ever, with big names including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CEO Disney’s Bob Iger, as well as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and founder Jeff Bezos all plan to attend, according to a guest list first seen by Diversity. However, Sun Valley will also be down an oracle.

Buffett is staying home

The 94-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, also known as the Oracle of Omaha, will not be attending what has long been one of his favorite events. Instead, he is sending his protégé and successor, Berkshire’s vice chairman of non-insurance businesses, Greg Abel.

It’s a big change for Buffett, who has been a regular at Sun Valley since the 1980s, where guests can enjoy fly fishing and horseback riding while staying at one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite Sun Valley spots. already over $1200 per night. Lodge. While this is not Abel’s first year attending Sun Valley, it will be his first year as the character representing Berkshire.

Buffett’s absence could be seen as another sign that he is ceding more responsibility and more public attention to Abel as he ages.

After the death of Charlie Munger, the Oracle of Omaha’s former right-hand man, last November, succession plans at Berkshire have come under scrutiny. But Buffett made it clear that he has been leaning on Abel for some time at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting this year, which some have labeled a “Woodstock for capitalists.” It seems Buffett is confident there won’t be much change at Berkshire after he leaves.

“I don’t do much and I don’t operate at the same level of efficiency that I would have 30 years ago or 40 years ago…when you have someone like Greg [Abel] and Ajit [Jain], why should you be satisfied with me? It has worked extremely well,” he told Berkshire shareholders, also referring to Ajit Jain, who heads the conglomerate’s insurance businesses.

Since Abel was named Buffett’s likely successor in 2021, there have been questions about whether the Berkshire veteran, who began his career as an accountant before becoming an energy executive and eventually taking over Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses, has his investments. the ancestor. But Buffett emphasized his confidence in his protégé at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting this year.

“If I was on that board and I made that decision, I would probably, knowing Greg, leave the equity allocation up to Greg,” he said. “He understands businesses extremely well, and if you understand businesses, you understand common stocks.”

Another missing titan

Buffett isn’t the only big name planning to skip Sun Valley this year — Tesla CEO Elon Musk also won’t be attending. In 2022, Musk gave a speech at the event, but his performance left attendees wanting more as he refused to answer questions from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about his acquisition of Twitter at the time yet in development, in a follow-up panel, Bloomberg reported, citing an unnamed. the resources.

It’s not entirely surprising that Musk is avoiding Sun Valley, given that the billionaire entrepreneur has made far fewer public appearances and given far fewer interviews in recent years, choosing instead to speak to the public through X ( ex Twitter) on a daily basis.

Musk’s refusal to attend, or answer pressing questions, stands in stark contrast to his more media-friendly past. In 2015, after the explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket that was supposed to deliver cargo to the International Space Station – one of SpaceX’s biggest setbacks – Musk faced the media, giving an exclusive interview to CNBC in which he promised to understand what went wrong and fix it.

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