Good morning.
Andrew Nusca here, editorial director of Brainstorm, Fortune’s innovation-obsessed community and event series. We just wrapped up our annual Brainstorm Tech summit in Park City, Utah, and Diane asked me to share what’s on the minds of the CEOs we met there. Here were some of the common threads:
Artificial intelligence, for one. Though the threats of AI have been long discussed, there was less pessimistic FUD—fear, uncertainty, doubt—and more optimistic food for thought about the ways AI’s capabilities could be put to use. Could it save us time from drudgery at work? Yes. Could it generate trillions of dollars in value? Certainly. Could it create unimaginable new products? Definitely. Could it displace knowledge workers? It’s complicated.
Regulation. The topic came up quite a bit on the stage for companies subject to that sort of thing, including finance firms and health organizations. Behind the scenes, though, there were fewer complaints about the regulation itself and more about how it slowed down innovation and clouded visibility. (And maybe a tinge of feeling like the whole thing has become a partisan issue.) The perils of progress.
Politics. Rare indeed were conversations about the recent attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a topic perhaps too complex for even AI to fully digest. The exception? The naming of Donald Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance. While investor Ben Harburg and policy advisor Jacob Helberg debated the finer points of U.S.-China policy onstage, attendees offstage discussed onetime venture capitalist Vance, whose time in San Francisco endeared him to some libertarian techies—principally those who weren’t women or LGBTQIA+.
The economy. There were plenty of investors interspersed with the technologists and Fortune 500 executives at Brainstorm, and most of them seemed relieved that the turmoil of our recent economy separated the smart money from the dumb. A difficult economic environment? Bad. Losing out to lemmings? Worse.
Brainstorm Tech features discussion about an array of topics and this year’s retreat featured dozens of CEOs from companies like Agility Robotics, Astrolab, Betterment, Biolinq, Entrata, Grindr, Interpublic Group, Lucid Motors, Pattern, Ripple, Robinhood, Runway, Somnee, Wiz, and Zoox. Catch up on what happened here.
More news below.
Andrew Nusca
andrew.nusca@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
VF ditches Supreme
VF Corp will sell Supreme to EssilorLuxottica for $1.5 billion, three years after buying the streetwear brand for $2 billion. Then-VF CEO Steve Rendle hoped that Supreme’s fast pace of releases might jump-start the company’s other brands. Instead, Supreme distracted VF’s management, causing sales at VF’s other brands like Vans and Timberland to drop. VF shares are down around 85% from their all-time high in 2019. Fortune
Is Elon Musk distracted?
Peter Rawlinson, CEO of EV maker Lucid Motors, thinks his competitor Elon Musk isn’t focused enough on Tesla, citing the billionaire’s support of former President Donald Trump as a “salient example of his level of distraction.” At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference, Rawlinson said that “Tesla used to have the lead in electric vehicle technology,” but now competitors are catching up. Rawlinson used to work for Musk, helping make Tesla’s popular Model S vehicle. Fortune
Tech tumbles
Semiconductor shares continued a two-day drop as the White House reportedly considers new export controls on China’s chip sector. The Biden administration is discussing using the foreign product rule, which allows it to regulate sales of any product that uses even a small amount of U.S. technology. Shares in Tokyo Electron, a major Japanese producer of chipmaking equipment, are down over 15% this week so far. Fortune
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Anti-tourist backlash in Europe causes cruise ships to change course by Ryan Hogg
U.S. real estate is so expensive it’s even keeping out wealthy foreign homebuyers by Sydney Lake
A Chinese bottled water giant founded by the country’s richest person is picking a fight with Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog by Lionel Lim
Sephora North America’s CEO has a leadership style informed by growing up an outsider by Fortune Editors
Andreessen Horowitz founders endorse Trump—’the future of our business…is literally at stake’ by Christiaan Hetzner
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
