From AI to Trump 2.0, Here's What's Looming Over Sun Valley
As is the case each year following the 4th of July weekend, Sun Valley, Idaho, is about to be inundated with private jets that are flying in a who's who of billionaires and industry bigwigs to attend investment firm Allen & Company's annual conference. Everyone from Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger to, yes, Bezos himself, will be at the so-called 'summer camp for billionaires' when it kicks off on Wednesday.
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Sun Valley has historically played host to the media and tech industry's wheelings and dealings, famously serving as the launchpad of deals such as Disney's 1995 acquisition of ABC and Comcast's $30 billion takeover of NBCUniversal in 2011. The conference comes right after Paramount's $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump, widely seen as a way to push through its pending merger with Skydance Media.
This year's conference comes at a particularly unique time, from the rise of artificial intelligence threatening to disrupt everything to companies figuring out how to navigate an environment made unpredictable by Trump. That's in addition to the typical merger talks that arise out of Sun Valley.
Here's what to expect and what to watch at the conference this week.
AI, like it has everywhere else, will likely take center stage in Sun Valley. Each of the industries represented at the conference, from media to entertainment to tech, are currently grappling with how to implement the technology and to what extent.
Executives have already been less gun-shy about talking about AI's effects on jobs. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC last week that AI will lead to more automation and 'fewer jobs' for humans in the near future, and Zuckerberg has said AI will erase a number of engineering jobs.
Hollywood is also coming to grips with how to use AI. Brian Grazer and his Imagine co-founder Ron Howard said last month they were both 'excited' by the technology and use it for a number of projects, including post-production work and for helping brainstorm ideas. But they also said they cannot see it replacing professional writers anytime soon.
That prediction may be tested in the near future after AI companies scored a critical legal victory in June, allowing them to use copyrighted work to train AI models. How the entertainment world — as well as media outlets, which are looking at how to implement AI in the newsroom — can coexist with the major AI companies will likely be on the agenda. Even OpenAI COO Brian Armstrong has said a 'level of trust' has yet to be established between Hollywood and the AI world so far; perhaps this week will lay the foundation — or it risks driving the two sides further apart.
Speaking of AI, the two attendees most likely to be at odds would be Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (both are invited). Meta has emerged as OpenAI's top rival of late — leapfrogging Elon Musk, who has been Altman's most prominent critic in recent years — as the two companies battle for position in the budding AI field.
Over the last several months, Zuckerberg poached four top OpenAI researchers and spent big bucks to make it happen, offering up to $100 million in first-year pay for employees to switch sides.
Altman has made it clear he is not thrilled with the development, at least to those inside the ChatGPT parent company. He downplayed Meta's hirings, saying the company 'didn't get [OpenAI's] top people and had to go quite far down their list,' in an internal memo obtained by Wired; Altman added he found Meta's poaching was 'somewhat distasteful.'
Having the two occupy the same halls of the Sun Valley conference could lead to some awkward tension.
Attending tech and media executives will also likely be trading their opinions on the best way to lead their companies in today's volatile political environment. Paramount and ABC's recent settlements with Trump will be fresh on everyone's mind, as well as the stock market, which has rebounded from its steep decline in April, following the president's 'Liberation Day' tariff plan announcement, to hit new all-time highs. (The pause on those tariffs is set to lift on Wednesday.)
What is the best approach to take? Cutting deals with the 'Art of the Deal' author has been one approach for some attendees, at least so far. OpenAI has partnered with the White House on its $500 million 'Stargate' AI infrastructure plan — a plan the president has said will help the U.S. 'dominate' rivals like China when it comes to AI. And Apple, led by CEO Tim Cook, earned kudos from the president after the company pledged $500 billion towards U.S. investment over the next few years.
Zuckerberg and Bezos, meanwhile, have both warmed up to President Trump following his victory last November. Not coincidentally, both of their companies are trading at all-time highs on Wall Street. Sun Valley attendees appear to have reached a consensus that they will get more with sugar than they do with salt when dealing with the second Trump Administration.
Going in the other direction and being critical has not worked out for one prominent ex-attendee recently; Elon Musk's criticism of the Trump-backed 'Big Beautiful Bill' has led to several major stock drops for Tesla. Sun Valley execs may believe keeping their mouths shut for a few years is the best move in order to keep their businesses running smoothly.
The following people have been invited by Allen & Company to this week's conference:
Tech
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue
Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan
Media and Entertainment
Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum
Creative Artists Agency CEO Bryan Lourd
Disney CEO Bob Iger
Disney co-chairman Dana Walden
DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg
ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch
Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch
Former Disney CEO and CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz
IAC chairman Barry Diller
Imagine Entertainment co-founder and producer Brian Grazer
Liberty Media CEO John Malone
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino
Motion Picture Association CEO Charles Rivkin
Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings
Sony Pictures CEO Ravi Ahuja
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav
Wasserman Media Group CEO Casey Wasserman
Press
ABC News former anchor Diane Sawyer
CBS News reporter Gayle King
CNBC reporter Becky Quick
CNBC and The New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper
CNN anchor Erin Burnett
Fox News anchor Bret Baier
The Free Press founder Bari Weiss
The New Yorker writer Evan Osnos
The Washington Post columnist David Ignatius
Politics
Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland
Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia
A few big names are notably absent from the 2025 roll call, including Tesla and X CEO Musk, who last attended in 2022.
Another former attendee who will not be in Sun Valley this year is Paramount Chairwoman Shari Redstone, who was at the conference last year. Redstone's absence comes a week after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit over how '60 Minutes' edited an interview with Kamala Harris last year — a settlement that has been skewered by many in the press.
Oprah Winfrey, who has attended a handful of times in the past, including last year, was not on the invitee list this year, and conference staple Warren Buffett will not be in attendance after announcing he plans to step down as the boss of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of this year.
His successor, Greg Abel, is expected to attend once again; it will be worth watching in the years ahead if Abel is more willing to invest in tech companies represented at the conference than Buffett, who has been famously reticent to put money into the sector beyond Apple and Amazon.
The post From AI to Trump 2.0, Here's What's Looming Over Sun Valley appeared first on TheWrap.
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