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Billionaires battle for the 21st century vision for space

Why are the two richest humans on Earth obsessed with space? 

Is it a classic billionaire ego-flexing contest? Or, could it be classic billionaire delusions of grandeur? 

Or, is it something more pure? Let’s find out. 

Both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are spending billions of dollars to develop rocket technology within their private companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin. And, both have already seen great success lowering the cost of rocket launches. 

When two visionary business leaders worth almost $400 billion (roughly the GDP of Norway) combined it’s worth paying attention to where they’re investing their vast resources and the vision they hold. Because with that many resources (or as Bezos called them Amazon lottery winnings), regardless of how anyone feels about the right or wrong of it, these two individuals will leave a massive mark on the future of humans in space. 

But, as both tech titans have wildly different personalities, they also have wildly different ideas for how and why humans need to get to space. 

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, former richest man on the planet, incredible operator, is in the race for best business leader in human history. He grew Amazon from an online book seller into a tech-behemoth that now dominates e-commerce. 

And, he didn’t do it overnight. He laid out a long-term plan and then executed on it year after year until Amazon grew into the giant it is today. And, with Bezos now stepping down as CEO, it’s likely that he will invest his time heavily into Blue Origin. Bezos brings an incredibly large scale vision to space and has the operator credibility to get it done. He’s a modern day titan of industry. 

But, what about Elon? 

Elon’s the “Meme King” richest human on planet Earth because of Tesla stock shooting to the moon. Elon goes on the Joe Rogan podcast, he tweets often (and paid a $20 million fine to the SEC for a tweet), dates a pop star named Grimes, and is one of the most entertaining and visionary entrepreneurs of all time. Plus, Tony Stark, the tech billionaire avenger is based on Elon.

Where Bezos is a cold-hard businessman, Elon is an artist (some reading this might say con-artist but I don’t agree). Elon believes he can use technology to create “magic” and inspire billions of human beings. And, so far he’s been spot on. 

The entire thesis for Tesla was not to create the highest profit, best operated, car company. From the beginning Musk was clear that his mission was to show the world that electric cars could be cool and desirable (not slow, nerdy, Nissan Leafs). He did this to inspire every other car company in the world to shift their focus from gas-powered to electric vehicles so the world could begin to shift to more renewable energy. 

So, for the 21st century space race we have the artist vs the operator. 
Elon’s vision for space has been shared often. He’s going to Mars. And, his plan involves creating a permanent base on Mars that can be the hub for exploring the rest of the solar system and beyond. 

But, Elon’s true desire is the “preservation and extension of human consciousness” beyond Earth. When we think of Elon’s vision for space, that needs to be at the core of it. Elon values the preservation of consciousness above all else in terms of why he’s spending billions of dollars to get humans to Mars. 

That’s why Elon focused on building a reusable rocket and dramatically lowering the cost of launching a rocket into space. If you haven’t watched the rocket landing on a barge in the ocean, it’s something to be seen.

Now, ask Bezos what he thinks about sending humans to Mars and he will laugh. He believes it’s a ridiculous idea and akin to moving to the top of Mt. Everest. The Bezos vision, in my opinion, is a much more practical vision for space (maybe not one I love or desire but practical for sure). 

Bezos sees space not as the hard drive backup of human consciousness but as an untapped resource for human creativity and proliferation. Space has, in essence, unlimited resources for us to use. And, Bezos sees that as the only way our civilization can progress forward. 

His vision includes one trillion people living and working in giant space colonies based on the O’Neill cylinder. Then, he sees us moving most industry into space and preserving the Earth for residential and light industrial use. 

This is an incredibly long-term vision and one that Bezos knows is not going to be completed in his lifetime. That’s why at Blue Origin he’s focused on “building the road to space”. He sees himself as building the railroad to the west. He’s laying the ground for future entrepreneurs who can innovate on the foundation that he’s building (low-cost, reusable transport into space). 

And, just to prove further what kind of thinker Bezos is, he is building a 10,000 year clock. 

So, in conclusion, we have the two best-capitalized entrepreneurs in human history with wildly different visions, methods, and personalities both investing their massive resources and time into developing our spacefaring abilities. 

Elon’s vision is to preserve and extend human consciousness by creating a reliable transport system to another planet, colonizing that planet, and then many years into the future even terraforming it. 

Bezos’s vision is to create a road to space for future entrepreneurs to build on top of. He sees space colonies, space manufacturing, and unlimited resources. 

And, while they have different visions, they have similar strategies. Lower the cost of space flight with reusable rockets. And, it’s clear SpaceX is far ahead in that category. 
But, if we’ve learned anything over the last twenty years it’s don’t underestimate Bezos. And, never underestimate Elon. 

I mean, look at these transformations:

P.S. I’m actively looking for an allocation into either SpaceX or Blue Origin, and if I find one I’d buy as many shares as I could afford. 

Elon has mentioned that as soon as Starlink reaches a certain revenue (this is his satellite internet arm of SpaceX) he will IPO. So I may just need to wait in line with all the rest of the retail investors to get a part of either of these innovative companies. 

I’m going to make a prediction to close out this issue. The world’s first trillionaire will come from space.