Burning Man showed Sam Altman what the future could be. Here are the famous CEOs and billionaires who have attended.

• Burning Man is a desert-based arts festival that's become a playground for wealthy elites.
• The dayslong event requires attendees to bring their own accommodations and food.
• It's become a tradition among models, influencers, and billionaire businessmen.

Tens of thousands of people are descending upon Black Rock City, Nevada, this week for the dusty desert festival known as Burning Man.

The event, which kicked off on Sunday and runs through September 7, has become a playground for billionaires, Hollywood A-listers, and Silicon Valley elites alike. Over the years, big-name tech bros and well-heeled execs have joined the festival, trading their hoodies for light-up bodysuits and Allbirds for sky-high boots.

The unwritten rules of the arts festival encourage anonymity and privacy. Nicknames and creative costumes — the theme this year is "Axis Mundi" — often make it difficult for festivalgoers to tell if they've run into someone famous or just a fellow burner, as attendees of the famously anti-capitalist event are called.

Still, the attendance of high-profile figures at Burning Man has been apparent, with some members of the tech elite finding their time on the playa — burner-speak for the dry lake bed where the festival takes place — so life-changing that they can't help but speak about it publicly.

Some of the ultrawealthy who go to Burning Man fly in on private jets and spend their time in "fancy camps," with meals made by personal chefs who charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for their services. For regular attendees, it's still possible to spot one of these famous faces in the desert.

Here are some of the most famous execs and founders who moonlight as burners:

Elon Musk has been very public about his love for Burning Man.

Not only has Elon Musk made more than one pilgrimage to Black Rock City, but he's also gone on the record touting the annual festival as an integral part of Silicon Valley culture. 

"If you haven't been, you just don't get it," the Tesla CEO told Recode in 2014.

As recently as 2022, Musk was posting about Burning Man on Twitter.

Mark Zuckerberg served sandwiches at the festival.

In 2012, at the urging of his friend and Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskowitz, Mark Zuckerberg took a break from his busy schedule to fly to Burning Man for a day and make some grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Along with its other inhabitants, he helped pitch his own tent," Moskowitz, a regular Burning Man attendee, wrote in a 2013 Medium post. 

"I wanted him to experience the city and to experience gifting because I thought it would make him grow as a person and the world better off as a result; I believe that's exactly what happened, however marginally (he was already a pretty great person)," he added about the Meta CEO.

Sam Altman was converted to a burner after attending the festival.

Sam Altman hasn't always been a fan of Burning Man. There was a time when the OpenAI CEO wanted nothing to do with whatever went down in Black Rock City.

"That is a ridiculous, escapism, crazy party," Altman said about his previous views on Burning Man on the "Life in Seven Songs" podcast in 2024.

Then, he saw what all of the hype was about. Altman said on the podcast that he'd been to Burning Man five or six times.

"All these lights. All this incredible art. People just biking around," Altman said on the podcast. "Everyone so happy, so engaged, so present that I was like, 'OK, I was wrong to be so negative on Burning Man.'"

He said the experience showed him what the world could look like when artificial general intelligence — AI capable of matching or surpassing human intelligence — is achieved.

"This is one possible, like, part of what the post-AGI world can look like," Altman said on the podcast. "Where people are just focused on doing stuff for each other, caring for each other, and making incredible gifts to give each other."

Elizabeth Holmes, disgraced Theranos founder, had a seemingly spiritual experience at the festival in 2018.

Before Elizabeth Holmes began serving her nine-year prison sentence, the disgraced biotech entrepreneur attended Burning Man.

In 2018, after it was discovered that Holmes was defrauding investors and she was indicted by a grand jury, the former Theranos CEO and her partner, Billy Evans, decided to attend Burning Man.

While there, they torched an effigy for the failed — and fraudulent — blood-testing business before embarking on a six-month RV trip traveling the country, she told The New York Times in 2023.

Jeff Bezos was attending Burning Man while other members of Silicon Valley royalty were still teenagers.

As early as 1999, Jeff Bezos was attending Burning Man, Forbes reported. That's long before the event became the go-to party for younger CEOs.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google cofounders, are longtime burners.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page have attended the event repeatedly over the years. In 1998, the very first Google Doodle was inspired by Burning Man.

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, bonded with the Google founders over the festival.

Brin and Page's obsession with the festival played a role in their choice of Eric Schmidt for Google CEO in 2001. Schmidt confirmed he'd bonded with the founders over the festival.

"I had been going before, and they had also gone, and so we found a kindred spirit there," he said during a talk at Stanford University in 2017.

Dustin Moskovitz included his Asana cofounder Justin Rosenstein in a list of prominent attendees in 2013.

One of the biggest sources of information about which tech executives go to Burning Man is Moskovitz, who cofounded Facebook.

In a heartfelt 2013 Medium post about the festival, he listed peers who had attended the big event. 

The piece — controversial within the Burning Man community — argued that billionaires have a right to attend the festival, a point he said was eye-opening for many of his friends. He argued that those who denied their right to attend were promoting a culture of exclusivity.

Among the tech execs Moskovitz listed as festival attendees were his Asana cofounder Justin Rosenstein, Zuckerberg, and the Winklevoss twins, who famously sued Zuckerberg over the origins of the social network.

Garrett Camp, cofounder of Uber, was on his 11th trip to Burning Man in 2013.

Garrett Camp, cofounder of Uber, has been a regular burner, according to anthropologist Francis Jervis. When the two met at the festival in 2013, Jervis said it was Camp's 11th time attending.

"His first experience of the radical otherness of the Playa was in the time of the Hillbilly Freak Show, not the luxurious turnkey camps with which Silicon Valley is associated today," Jervis wrote.

Alexis Ohanian, Reddit cofounder, was a burner before he was Serena Williams' husband.

Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit, may now be best known as the partner of tennis star Serena Williams. Not too long ago, he was just another tech mogul wandering the desert in hopes of finding himself.

He said he attended Burning Man during an appearance on Tim Ferriss's podcast in 2014.

Drew Houston, cofounder and CEO of Dropbox, went to the festival in 2014.

Drew Houston, Dropbox cofounder and CEO, attended Burning Man in 2014, TechCrunch reported at the time.

Ray Dalio, billionaire investor, attended the festival in 2019.

Ray Dalio, the billionaire hedge fund manager who founded Bridgewater Associates, made an appearance at Burning Man in 2019, wearing a tie-dye coat and psychedelic bell-bottoms.

He said in a tweet that the festival was like Woodstock, with "better art" and "less good music."

Just back from Burning Man. Reminds me of Woodstock with better art (installations) and less good music. What a great vibe and what amazing creativity!

Photo is with my pal and coworker Jeff Taylor at his great music camp Root Society. If you go next year, 1-5am is best. pic.twitter.com/ua5UIbRlxo

— Ray Dalio (@RayDalio) September 2, 2019

Josh Kushner, founder of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, has attended Burning Man with his model wife, Karlie Kloss.

Josh Kushner, the billionaire founder of venture capital firm Thrive Capital and younger brother of Jared Kushner, was seen at Burning Man in 2022 with his wife, Karlie Kloss.

He appeared on the model's Instagram, holding hands with her in front of a giant fork sculpture commissioned by Musk.

Brian Chesky, Airbnb cofounder, attended his first Burning Man in 2013.

Billionaire Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky first attended Burning Man in 2013, according to Chip Conley, Airbnb's former head of global hospitality and strategy.

"Burning Man is what life would be like if artists ruled the world," Chesky said after attending, according to Conley, who shared the story on an episode of The Human Upgrade podcast in 2023.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, former CEO of DreamWorks, invested in a business he encountered at Burning Man.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder and former CEO of DreamWorks, found an investment opportunity at Burning Man.

Katzenberg, who also founded the tech investment firm WndrCo, told CNBC in an interview last year that he was on the playa when he saw a "dazzling" drone light show and wanted to know more about who was behind it.

"The reason I went to Burning Man — I love Burning Man — is the art. The art cars, the art shows, and I was there in 2022, and suddenly, in this sky is this literally mind-blowing exhibition," he said.

The person behind the show: Kimball Musk, Elon Musk's brother. Katzenberg invested in Nova Sky Stories, cofounded by Kimball Musk, and became a strategic advisor to the company last year.

Like many who go to Burning Man, Katzenberg said he slept in a tent there.

Honorable mention: the actors, musicians, and other celebrities who love to burn.

Billionaires and CEOs aren't the only recognizable faces who have popped up at Burning Man in the past. The event has also hosted a number of models, influencers, and heirs to business empires.

DJ Diplo and comedian Chris Rock were among the Burners who were stranded in the mud during heavy rains in 2023. Diplo documented their trek on social media before the pair used their star power to hitch a ride with a fan out of flooded conditions.

In previous years, the festival has been seen in a more glamorous light through the Instagram outfit pictures from Katy Perry, Paris Hilton, and Heidi Klum.

Becky Peterson and Kylie Kirschner contributed to earlier versions of this story.

Read the original article on Business Insider