Steve Ballmer rolls his eyes when the conversation turns to fellow billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and the persistent rumour that the Facebook boss is planning to run for president.
Tech tycoons seem to be getting a taste for politics, from LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman to Y Combinator’s Sam Altman. Ballmer, the former Microsoft supremo, finds it all rather irksome.
“The tech industry has created a lot of very rich people who can entertain ideas other than working in full-time regular jobs. So there is time and there is money among some tech people like me,” says Ballmer. “Do I think that makes any of us qualified to actually be politicians? Not particularly. To be decision makers? Not particularly.”
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