Elon Musk forgets Twitter and points to Mars

The billionaire businessman 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 he announced he was ending his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter Inc.

The interview was conducted by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company founded by Musk and other investors.

Musk’s arrival at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley provided a jolt to this week’s private event, where things usually happen out of the prying eyes of the media.

“It looks like an absolute mess,” said a senior media executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the interview. “The guy makes his own rules… I wouldn’t want to be Twitter, where you have to take this guy seriously.”

Sun Valley is often covered like a version of the Met Gala, with photographers capturing the arrivals of media moguls and reporters taking notes on lunches at the venue’s Konditorei cafe.

A Hollywood agent had expressed hope on Friday that Musk’s interview would liven up the cerebral and dull atmosphere of this year’s conference.

Hours later, Musk’s lawyers delivered an eight-page letter to Twitter, saying he planned to cancel the deal to acquire the social network.

The document, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleged that Twitter had not responded to repeated requests for information in the last two months, nor had it obtained their consent before taking measures that could affect its business, such as the dismissal of two key executives.

Until then, the talk in media circles was focused on Wall Street’s reassessment of the streaming business in the wake of Netflix’s subscriber losses.

A digital media executive said Hollywood, normally insulated from recessions, is suddenly worried about how a downturn in the economy will affect its multibillion-dollar investments in streaming services.

“For the first time, people are aware that the economy has an impact on the entertainment business, because inflation has an impact on churn,” the digital media executive said, referring to subscribers leaving a service.