When tech’s biggest names head home from the Allen and Co. mogul fest in Sun Valley, Idaho, this week, most will walk up the airstairs of their private jet and turn right toward their cream-colored cabin seats. But an increasing number could take a left and sit in the cockpit.
Every top gun in tech, it seems, wants to become a pilot. The ranks of aspiring aviators now include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose interests have lately expanded from cage fighting to flying. The father of three obtained a student pilot certificate earlier this year, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
Other aviators who have attended the “summer camp for billionaires” include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who obtained his pilot license back in 2010, helicopter pilot and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, who once flew alone from Miami to Havana in a four-seater. Even Zuckerberg’s potential jujitsu foe, Elon Musk, is a licensed pilot.