The Allen and Company Sun Valley Conference convened July 6 in Ketchum, Idaho, and runs through July 11. The gathering, founded in 1983 with 35 guests, has long operated off the record and without public sessions. Whatever happens inside stays off the feed until press releases surface months later.
This year's roster spans both sides of the power shift reshaping the entertainment industry. On the media side: David Zaslav, Ted Sarandos, Lachlan Murdoch, and Comcast chairman Brian Roberts. On the technology side: Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Apple CEO Tim Cook. According to Fortune, the people now holding the most leverage in that room are not the studio chiefs. They are the ones whose companies are building the technology that could replace traditional entertainment.
A planned licensing deal between OpenAI and Disney worth $1 billion fell apart in the months before the conference, according to Fortune. The collapse illustrated the friction between AI companies seeking to license entertainment content and studios uncertain about what they are actually selling.
Other attendees listed by The Wrap include Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, CFO Spencer Neumann, Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Ravi Ahuja, and Hollywood producers Brian Grazer and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Apple's John Ternus, listed as incoming CEO by The Wrap, also attended alongside Tim Cook.
The conference ends July 11.