A Tech Summit in Aspen Offers an Escape From Geopolitical Woes

I spent much of this week in a parallel universe where the world isn’t melting down and the business of technology can proceed as usual. While President Donald Trump canoodled with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Silicon Valley executives and their financial backers shuttled to Aspen, Colorado, for a meeting of the minds. Trump’s pro-Putin statements—which even unsettled Fox News this week and resulted in a televised correction by the president—hardly created a ripple among tech elites in Aspen.

It was business as usual. At Fortune magazine’s Brainstorm Tech conference, Uber Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi talked about getting metaphorically punched in the face by the latest employee unrest at Uber. Stripe Inc. Operating Chief Claire Johnson threw shade at the blockchain. DoorDash Inc.—which later announced it had hired away Uber’s top financial executive—talked about digitizing restaurants. The administration’s new tariffs came up in a conversation with Richard Liu, CEO of Chinese e-commerce company JD.com. He said he wasn’t too worried. Life goes on.