Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang on Thursday predicted that the big-time spending from billionaire 2020 rivals Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer isn’t going to amount to much.

“I’m less upset than some of the other candidates at Tom and Mike spending all this money because I think it’s going to be a dud,” Mr. Yang, a tech entrepreneur, told reporters aboard his campaign bus in Iowa, according to Yahoo News.

Mr. Bloomberg, who launched his White House bid last month, has already topped $100 million in spending on ads, with Mr. Steyer close behind.

But Mr. Yang said there are “diminishing returns” on ad buys and that the advertising eventually becomes “more irritating than informative.”

“This has been demonstrated again and again — self-funded candidates have a very poor track record. I do not think this cycle is running any differently,” he said.

“I don’t foresee either of them making it to the top of the polls,” Mr. Yang said. “So I think this is something of a political science experiment, but I’m not concerned about either of them buying the election.”

Mr. Yang and Mr. Steyer are both set to be on the Democratic presidential debate stage next week in Los Angeles.

Mr. Bloomberg is thus far declining donations, and therefore won’t hit the fundraising requirements the Democratic National Committee has set for candidates to qualify for the debates for the time being.

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