The Bilderberg Group: Unveiling the Secretive Annual Gathering

The secretive and immensely influential Bilderberg Group held its annual conference in Madrid this year. Between May 30 and June 2, an elite assembly that included the chief executives of Google DeepMind, Microsoft AI, Anthropic, and Mistral AI, joined the leaders of multinationals such as Citigroup, Pfizer, and Shell to delve into the complexities and future of Artificial Intelligence.

These attendees were invited and meticulously selected by the Bilderberg Group’s steering committee. As is customary, their identities were not made public until the eve of the Madrid meeting. Although the names of 131 attendees from 25 countries were announced on the Bilderberg website on May 29, a source close to the group once noted that “not all names” are always published.

As this year’s host, Spain had 10 representatives, including Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Manuel Albares, Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo, the Governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernandez de Cos, and Ana Botin, executive chair of Santander Bank. Spain’s former vice-president Nadia Calviño was present as the president of the European Investment Bank.

Other notable invitees included King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. However, the names of the UK contingent’s eight participants would likely mean little to the uninitiated.

Bilderberg Group discussions and any decisions made at the Hotel Mirasierra near El Pardo, the late Francisco Franco’s official residence, are conducted under Chatham House rules. This means that while information may be used, neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speakers can be revealed.

These meetings were established in 1954 by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands to foster dialogue between Europe and the United States. The first conference was held at the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek near Arnhem.

Because the sessions are cloaked in secrecy, conspiracy theorists have long warned that Bilderberg is the true power behind every throne. Could it be true? Only Bilderberg participants know the answer, and they aren’t telling.