The billionaire entrepreneur took the stage at the Allen & Co Sun Valley Conference, an annual gathering of media and technology executives in Idaho, less than 24 hours after announcing the termination of his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter Inc.
The interview was conducted by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research firm founded by Musk and other investors.
Musk’s arrival at the Allen & Co convention in Sun Valley came as a shocker to this week’s special event, where things usually happen away from the prying eyes of the media.
“It feels like absolute chaos,” said a senior media official, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the interview. “Man makes his own rules… I don’t want to be Twitter, you have to take this guy seriously.”
The Sun Valley is often covered like a version of the Met Gala, with incoming photographers capturing media moguls and journalists taking notes on lunches at the venue’s Konditorei Café.
A Hollywood agent on Friday expressed hope that Musk’s interview would revive the mental and boring atmosphere of this year’s conference.
Hours later, Musk’s lawyers delivered an eight-page letter to Twitter, saying he intended to scrap the deal to acquire the social network.
The document, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleges that Twitter has not responded to repeated requests for information in the past two months, nor has it obtained their consent before taking actions that could affect its business, such as disconnecting two keys. managers.
Until then, the talk in media circles had focused on Wall Street’s reassessment of the streaming business in the wake of Netflix’s subscriber losses.
A digital media executive said Hollywood, which is usually insulated from recessions, has suddenly become concerned about how the economic downturn will affect its multi-billion dollar investment in streaming services.
“For the first time, people are realizing that the economy is having an impact on the entertainment sector, because inflation is having an impact on disruption,” the digital media executive said, referring to subscribers leaving the service.