Tech tycoon offers $100,000 to female co-passenger to take off her face mask, she declines

A technology tycoon, who is worth a reported $230 million, made global headlines recently after he offered a co-passenger on the Delta flight a whopping $100,000 to take off her mask.

The woman was seated next to the tech mogul named Steve Kirsch on a first-class Delta flight, Kirsch informed in a post on microblogging platform Twitter which has now gone viral, but for all the bad reasons.

As per Kirsch, who is 67-year-old, the billionaire made the $100,000 offer to the woman sitting next to him to remove her masks after he explained to her that the masks don't work. Though the woman, who Kirsch says is in her mid 60s, refused the offer, the tech mogul shared the story on Twitter.

The woman works for a pharma company, he said. Kirsch's post on Twitter backfired miserably as the business tycoon was slammed on the microblogging site for being "creepy" and a "noxious arrogant fool" who ruined a woman's flight.

Days after the incident went viral, the tech tycoon broke his silence and claimed that the $100,000 offer was "hypothetical" to "question the intensity of her belief" that masks were an effective form of protection against the virus.

“She believes it [the mask] works,” the tech tycoon told the New York Post.

On a Twitter thread that started on March 10, the Silicon Valley veteran, credited with introducing one of the first versions of the optical mouse back in 1980, shared that the bidding started at $100. "And I pointed out that when she removed the mask for eating and drinking, she could be infected with one breath. So she had full disclosure," Kirsch said.

"She took off her mask as soon as breakfast was served!!!! Because everyone knows you can’t get infected while you are eating!!" he added.

While the post by Kirsch attracted over 32.2 million views on Twitter, many users called him an "entitled mansplainer", while other users urged the airline to reimburse the woman who was sitting next to him for ruining her journey.

"Maybe next time I’ll sit next to someone who had an account at Silicon Valley Bank," Kirsch added.
Many also slammed him and called him a liar. However, this isn't the first time that Kirsch has offered money to people inside a plane for taking off their masks.

In a post made by the billionaire on Substrack, Kirsch had claimed that previously he offered $10,000 to people sitting next to him, but both of them declined the offer.
Kirsch had created a research fund for potential Covid treatment where he poured $1 million into the venture, as per MIT Technology Review.