Burning Man showed Sam Altman what the future could look like. Here are the famous CEOs and billionaires who have attended in the past.

Not only has Musk made more than one pilgrimage to Black Rock City, 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," Musk told Recode in 2014.

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

In 2012, at the urging of his friend and Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskowitz, 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 Zuckerberg.

Sam Altman hasn't always been a fan of Burning Man. There was a time when he wanted nothing to do with whatever goes 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's 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 that is capable of matching or surpassing human intelligence — is reached.

"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."

Before 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 take a trip to Burning Man.

While there, they reportedly torched an effigy for the failed — and fraudulent — blood-testing business before embarking on a six-month RV trip traveling the country. 

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

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

In fact, Brin and Page's obsession with the festival led them to choose Eric Schmidt as Google's CEO in 2001.

"Eric was . . . the only one who went to Burning Man," Brin reportedly said in a 2002 interview. "We thought [that] was an important criterion."

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

His heartfelt 2013 Medium post listed peers who had been to the big event. 

His piece — no doubt controversial within the Burning Man community — argued that billionaires have a right to attend the festival, which he said was eye-opening to many of his friends. Those who denied their right to attend were promoting a culture of exclusivity, he argued.

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

Camp is 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.

Ohanian is now probably best known as the partner of tennis star Williams. But not too long ago, he was just another tech mogul wandering the desert in hopes of finding himself.

He reportedly attended Burning Man in 2014.

Houston reportedly attended Burning Man in 2014.

The 76-year-old billionaire hedge fund manager made an appearance at Burning Man in 2019, wearing a tie-dye coat and psychedelic bell bottoms.

He seems to have had mixed feelings about his experience. He said the festival was like Woodstock, with "better art" and "less good music."

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.

Billionaire Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky first went to Burning Man in 2013 on an invitation from board member Chip Conley. 

"Burning Man is what life would be like if artists ruled the world," he reportedly said after attending.

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 fashion 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.