Bill Gates Says That Tech Giants Such As Apple Deserve Tough Criticism From Governments

Founder of Microsoft and former CEO Microsoft Bill Gates stated in an interview that major tech companies like Apple deserve tough criticism from the governmental authorities. He believes that tech giants ‘deserve’ the kind of scrutiny they got during Congressional hearings in July of this year. He also told the Armchair Expert podcast that late Steve Jobs was a ‘genius.’

Gates is a software developer, American entrepreneur, and investor, and he proposed that big tech companies the size of Apple should ‘deserve’ special attention from regulators and government officials. Speaking to Dax Shephard, he explained that the events of July 29, 2020, House Judiciary Committee testimony featuring Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Chief Executive Officers of Google and Amazon are largely to be expected. In the antitrust hearing, the CEOs were questioned about their business practices. Gates told Shephard that if a person is as successful as Bill Gates, or any of those individuals like Tim Cook, that person deserves rude, tough, unfair questions.

The Microsoft founder speaks from his experience as his leadership of the company involved several instances where Gates was asked questions by government officials and lawmakers. Back in 1998, the United States government accused Microsoft of illegally maintaining a monopoly position in the computer market.

During the interview, the Microsoft founder talked about the work of his foundation, ‘The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’ on vaccines, and what it was like starting Microsoft. It is noteworthy that his foundation has pledged a total of $250 million toward coronavirus research to support the development of vaccines and diagnostics. Bill Gates stepped down as the CEO of Microsoft back in the year 2000 and left his full-time role at the company in 2008 to focus on The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates also talked about what it was like being a celebrity of sorts during the wide-ranging podcast interview. Gates also admired how Apple co-founder Steve Jobs turned Apple around when Jobs returned to Apple Inc. Bill said that he was not as ‘tough’ as Jobs, and he referred to Steve Jobs as a ‘wizard’ compared to Bill Gates as a ‘minor wizard.’ He said that Steve Jobs was a ‘genius’ at reviving Apple on his return to the company. The 97-minute podcast interview covers several other topics including Diet coke and the movie Spy Game. Bill stated that he is not that great socially and he is very embarrassed that he does not speak any other language fluently.


Photo: Hou Yu/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

Read next: These Countries Have the Highest Number of Individuals without Internet Access
Previous Post Next Post