Bill Gates Visits Sun Valley for Climate Change Lecture to Jet-Owning Billionaires

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have both reportedly been spotted at the annual “billionaire summer camp” held in Sun Valley, Idaho, this week. Non-scientist Gates is attending to give a lecture on climate change to the assembled Big Tech Masters of the Universe and media moguls. There have been so many private jets flying in and out of the elite event that the FAA has reportedly delayed incoming planes.

Business Insider reports that Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were both spotted in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Thursday as billionaires from around the world flock to the annual conference hosted by the private investment bank Allen & Co. The event has been dubbed the “summer camp for billionaires,” and so many turned up in private jets this year that the FAA had to delay incoming planes.

Bill Gates is a regular attendee but his appearance this year is the first time he’s been at the conference since the announcement of his divorce from Melinda French Gates in May. This is also his first in-person appearance at a major event since the announcement and the first since a number of reports were published about Gates’ allegedly unsavory behavior.

Multiple reports characterized Gates as a womanizer and bully whose actions prompted an investigation by the Microsoft Board in 2019. In a report, Business Insider alleged that the public image many have of Bill Gates as an affable, nerdy, tech genius is actually part of a well-crafted PR campaign.

The real Gates reportedly pursues extramarital affairs with employees and acts as an office bully, according to former executives who spoke out anonymously. Business Insider reported:

Gates was known for swearing and berating underlings. “That’s the stupidest fucking idea I’ve ever heard” became a catchphrase for the CEO. He kept tabs on employees by memorizing their license plates. Gates tried to dilute Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s equity in the company because he was “unproductive” while dealing with his first bout of cancer, Allen wrote in his memoir.

The report also includes details of Gates’ various extramarital relationships including his annual vacation with an ex-girlfriend, the software entrepreneur Ann Winblad whom he would spend a long weekend together with every spring at Winblad’s beach cottage in North Carolina.

The Microsoft founder broke work and personal boundaries, too, The New York Times reported. Once, after attending a presentation given by a female Microsoft employee in 2006, he asked her out to dinner by email. “If this makes you uncomfortable, pretend it never happened,” Gates wrote in the email obtained by The Times.

On another occasion, Gates asked a Gates Foundation employee on a date while they were at a cocktail party in New York. “I want to see you. Will you have dinner with me?” he asked her in a low voice, the woman told The Times.

Conference sources have stated that Gates was due to give a speech about climate change at the event on Friday, whether that speech is still happening remains to be seen.