The conference of Allen & Company, Herb AllenThe annual high-altitude, midsummer summit in Sun Valley, Idaho, for tech entrepreneurs, media heads and other masters of the universe, is almost always a quiet, friendly affair. The sun shines; the earthquake of the amoles; programming impresses—Bill Gates i Jeff Bezos we shared the stage here on Friday; families are invited and well looked after; recreational activities abound; dinners are relaxed; and above all, the attendees have plenty of time to meet and plan with each other, free from office entourages and buoyed by the pride of knowing they are members of a a lot exclusive club of people with real power, money and influence.
Unfortunately, in the summer of a very intense presidential campaign season, even this idyllic retreat is not immune to the tensions surrounding the rest of society. And at one point, things took a decidedly tense and awkward turn when former Stanford classmates Reid Hoffman i Peter Thiel he started to fight Biden i trumpwith the whole conference watching.
Of course, Hoffman and Thiel have spent years on opposite sides of the political spectrum: Hoffman as a major Democratic donor and Biden supporter; Thiel as an early supporter of Trump, albeit notably no a donor this time. For years, the PayPal alumni fought and argued over politics, but maintained their longtime friendship, even during their 2022 proxy war in Ohio, where Thiel invested $15 million in groups that they supported them. JD Vancethe Senate campaign, and Hoffman supported Democrats in state and legislative races. By the following year, however, their political disagreements had put a strain on the relationship. In an interview in March 2023, Hoffman said Kara Swisher“Peter and I talk a lot less now than we used to, I mean a lot less, partly because if we're going to talk, we're going to argue about it. … It's probably been a challenge for both of us.”
As his exchange here at the conference made clear, it really has been enough challenging On Wednesday morning, I was told by more than half a dozen conference attendees that Hoffman was on stage with Palantir's CEO Alex Karp in conversation with the moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin. At one point, Sorkin asked Hoffman to discuss his relationship with Thiel. Reid offered kind words for his former friend, but said he no longer speaks to him because of his support for Trump, which Hoffman called “a moral issue.”
Thiel, who was sitting in the audience along with everyone else attending the conference, appeared to be visibly upset by this accusation of moral culpability. Finally, he defended himself and offered his own retort. As several attendees told me, Thiel told Hoffman his door was always open if he ever wanted to talk. He also sarcastically thanked her for sending him a deck of his “Trumped Up Cards” — the satirical anti-Trump, Cards Against Humanity-style deck that Hoffman created in 2016. “I sent you the first deck , Peter,” Hoffman replied.
For a moment, some attendees said, it appeared the exchange between the former friends might end amicably. Then Thiel got serious. In 2016, the cards had been funny, he said, but a few months later, after Trump won the White House, they seemed silly (Thiel gave Trump $1.25 million in that campaign). Thiel then hinted that Hoffman's obsession with small-minded tactics was misguided, hadn't worked in 2016 and wouldn't work now, and that all of Hoffman's efforts to fight Trump only made him stronger . “He was aggressive and condescending,” said one aide. “He seemed to be saying, 'It doesn't matter what you do. Bring it”.
Then, in what one source described as “the dagger” and another as a “twist of the knife,” Thiel sarcastically thanked Hoffman for funding the lawsuits against Trump because they had made him “a martyr,” adding thus their chances of returning. choice “I'm very grateful to you,” Thiel said.
From the stage, Hoffman fired back with his own sarcastic quip: “Yeah, I wish I had made him a real martyr”. And, on that awkward note, the exchange ended. (Both Hoffman and Thiel did not respond to emails seeking comment.)
The incident was the subject of much discussion at dinner that night, I'm told. Even as late as Friday, several conference attendees were still reflecting on the surreal nature of what they had witnessed. “It was one thing,” one said to me. “It was so intense and so incredibly strange, and just sad.” As another attendee said: “It was very intense, it was uncomfortable for everyone because it was real. It wasn't that they were funny. This is the breakup of a lifelong friendship and relationship. And to see it in public exhibition of these people? It says a lot about where the country is.”
Indeed, as some of these people reflected on the altercation, they also alluded to the way our polarized politics had affected their own previously cordial relationships with fellow entrepreneurs and business leaders. “There are a lot of people I know who were never politicians who have lost friends because of it,” said one executive. “The idea that these two guys, who helped make each other, could lose their friendship because of this … it's sad.”
Zaz's Private Idaho
Inevitably, the stakes of politics have hung in the balance throughout this conference, with Biden's political fate unclear and the future of the Democratic ticket, and thus the election itself, hanging in the balance? Obviously, the Sun Valley crowd is a mix of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, stalwarts, etc., and a clear majority of individuals across the spectrum who wish they had better options to choose from this cycle. But Biden's fate affects them and their businesses regardless of their politics. So, amid all the talk of consolidation, regulation, AI, the battle for NBA rights, and Zuckerbergit's new lasciviousnessconversations often returned to Biden, with particular attention to attendees with ties to him Barack or Nancy or Chuck and might shed some light on what will actually happen. Even in this elite and rarefied crowd, no one knows. But one gets the feeling that most people here think, no matter what happens with the Democrats, it's Trump's election to lose.
A predictable theme has been, regardless of party affiliation, the willingness to report on the regulatory environment. In fact, whoever these people in Washington can support, they are no one who seems to unite them in going as much as Lina Khan, the prodigious divisive chair of the FTC who, in his opinion, is unnecessary and pedantic and aggressively trying to stifle corporate consolidation, calm merger and acquisition activity, and make corporate America less competitive.
Lately, this concern has weighed heavily on the mind of David Zaslav. On Tuesday, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery showed up to the conference with a white bandana wrapped around her neck and made her usual pilgrimage to the media rope line just outside the Lodge's main entrance. (No executive here is as generous with quotes as Zaz; most choose not to talk to the press.) This year, when asked who he might support in November, Zaz said he was less interested in the winner of a presidential election that was itself favorable to business interests: “We just need an opportunity for deregulation, because companies can consolidate and do so.” what we need to be even better.”
Zaz's outspokenness raised a few eyebrows, although many people here agreed with him. But, as I later learned, the comment was intentional and strategic. For months, Zaz has been aggressively trying to pave the way for greater consolidation in Hollywood. He has recently made several trips to Washington to meet with the Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other members of the Biden administration, as well as senior Republicans, arguing that mergers and acquisitions are essential to compete with Amazon, Google and Netflix. He's also been discussing the topic here at length with Raimondo, a regular conference attendee, and his fellow entertainment executives.
Zaz has his own motivations for making deals, of course, but his official filing is a patriotic call: without a green light for consolidation, American media companies won't be able to keep pace with global tech giants, depriving Americans of local programming and the world of their greatest export: storytelling. (Needless to say, I'm not sure cane i Ted i jeff i Sundar I would agree with this thesis.)
The Allen & Co conference has always done an excellent job of welcoming new and new businesses to help balance out the old cowboys. In other words: one of the defining images of this week's networking festival was a coexistence Josh Kushner walking alongside Alexandre Arnault, one of the heirs to the LVMH fortune. However, this year there has been a sense that the crowd of tycoons, most of whom are now largely in their second or third or fourth a decade of impressive wealth, they're acting their age a bit: picking old fights, complaining, trying to figure out how to disrupt the disruptors, and perhaps feeling the frustration of occasional limits to their immense power. At one point this weekend, I ran into one of the relatively younger regulars and asked him how this year's conference was going and if he was enjoying his meetings. “Hey,” he said, “it's starting to feel like this is the old folks.”
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