Business Blog: Fire your neurons

Why a ‘collective conversation’ is so important for tech and AI right now

June 3, 2024

Folks, I’m excited. In just six weeks we’ll kick off Fortune Brainstorm Tech, our annual three-day retreat in the mountains. It’s my favorite date on the calendar.

If you’ve ever been, you know why I’m eager to hop the July flight to Park City. The granddaddy to Fortune's global Brainstorm event series is the place where we convene leading thinkers and thinking leaders, as its founding editor put it. With the spirit of multidisciplinary inquiry, we bring together the most thoughtful, connected, and powerful people we know in tech, finance, entertainment, and industry to explore and interrogate the role of technology in the world.

It’s right there in the name: Brainstorm is a collective conversation. Everyone we invite to participate is accomplished enough to speak, and we purposefully narrow the distinction between speaker and attendee so that ideas flow freely. Every year I leave Brainstorm energized by who I’ve met and what I’ve heard. (I also leave a little sore from all the hiking, riding, and rafting at altitude. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, eh?)

The list of luminaries joining us this year is all killer, no filler. Roelof Botha, the head of Sequoia Capital, will outline where he’s placing his bets and explain what it takes to build the biggest Silicon Valley successes. Qualcomm’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, will talk about the next inning for A.I. Speaking of which: The heads of A.I. at Amazon, Google, and Salesforce—Rohit Prasad, Jeff Dean, and Clara Shih, respectively—will predict where the puck is going for their tech giants. And the San Francisco Fed chief, Mary Daly, will offer her economic outlook mere weeks before she and her peers vote on rates.

We’re bringing back some Brainstorm veterans, too, though some are now working on new projects. Peggy Johnson, now the CEO of Agility Robotics, returns to show off the latest generation of humanoid robots. Samara’s Joe Gebbia and Mike McNamara will explain how they plan to disrupt housing. Zoox’s Aicha Evans will give us an update on the complicated matter of self-driving cars. And Upfront Ventures’ Mark Suster will give us a peek at his updated playbook for investing in disruption.

That’s not all. Exploration Company’s Helene Huby, Venturi Astrolab’s Jaret Mathews, and Stoke Space’s Kelly Hennig will take us to outer space. Breeze Airways’ David Neeleman will hit the runway. Riot Games’ Dylan Jadeja will troll the respawn and Wiz’s Assaf Rappaport will terrify us with tales of cyberwarfare. And did I mention China? Ben Harburg and Jacob Helberg will forcefully debate whether the U.S. should engage or disengage with its favorite tech frenemy.

A number of topics are on deck for our signature roundtable discussions, including where A.I. valuations are going, which customer data really matters, who will revive the unicorpses, and how to communicate with Generation Z. (No cap.) Thinkers from an array of illustrious organizations are coming to Brainstorm Tech this year, and I’m terribly keen to hear what folks from Adobe, AMD, Coca-Cola, Comcast, eBay, Mastercard, Morgan Stanley, Palantir, Samsung, SAP, Tencent, Walmart, and Zillow have to say.

We’ll livestream Fortune Brainstorm Tech, but it’s so much better to actively participate, wouldn’t you agree? Register here before it’s too late.

The indefatigable Allie Garfinkle returns tomorrow. I’ll see you in Park City.

Andrew Nusca

Editorial Director, Fortune Brainstorm
Twitter: @editorialiste
Email: andrew.nusca@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Sibill, an Agropoli, Italy-based financial operations platform for small and medium-sized businesses, raised €6.2 million ($6.7 million)g from Keen Venture Partners, founders, and Exor Ventures.

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Cerberus Capital Management acquired the hypersonic and defense test systems business units from TransDigm Group, a Cleveland, Ohio-based producer of aerospace products. Financial terms were not disclosed.

IPOS

- LandBridge, a Houston, Texas-based acquirer of oil land, filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $102 million in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2024. Five Point Energy backs the company.

- WEBTOON Entertainment, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based online cartoon platform, filed to go public on the Nasdaq. The company posted $1.3 billion in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2024. NAVER and LY Corporation back the company.

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FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- Creandum, a Stockholm, Sweden-based venture capital firm, raised €500 million ($542 million) for its seventh fund focused on technology companies.

- Clean Energy Ventures, a Boston, Mass. and London, U.K.-based venture capital firm, raised $305 million for its second fund focused on climate technology companies.

PEOPLE

- Littlejohn & Co., a Greenwich, Conn.-based private equity firm, promoted Antonio Miranda and Steven Raich to managing partners.

- Norwest, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital and growth equity investment firm, hired Chris Scullin as principal on the growth equity team. Formerly, he was with Bain Capital.