Do deals get done at Sun Valley anymore?
From our US edition
Silicon Valley is really just a few hundred people connected by favors and money. Most of us rely on this network, but few know how it really functions. This new column reveals the inner wiring of the American tech world. Traditionally, the Valley’s message to Washington has been: keep out. Now Sam Altman is offering the government 5 percent of OpenAI – worth some $43 billion – as a gift. Quite a conversion. The Valley that once worshipped Ronald Reagan now warms to Donald Trump’s economics. The state already owns a slice of Intel and a cut of Nvidia’s chip sales to China. Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, has introduced a bill that would take half the equity of the biggest AI firms in a one-off tax; so for Altman, 5 percent seems a cheap insurance policy.
