Peter Diamandis

Diamandis was born into a family of Greek immigrants in the Bronx, New York; his father was an obstetrician-gynecologist and his mother helped run the practice. His parents hoped he would become a doctor, while he was drawn to spaceflight from an early age. According to his recollection in a profile interview, he used the family’s Super 8 camera to record the television broadcast of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.⁠[2]

In 1980, Diamandis helped found Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The organization’s early founders also included Scott Scharfman of Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry and Richard Sorkin of Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry, who each built a student chapter at their school. In 1982, Diamandis, Bob Richards and Todd Hawley went on to help found the national organization SEDS-USA.⁠[3]

In 1983, Diamandis graduated from MIT with his undergraduate degree. MIT News, in its report on his 2011 return-to-campus talk, identified him as SB ’83, SM ’88, corresponding to a bachelor’s degree in 1983 and a master’s degree in 1988.⁠[4]

In 1987, he co-founded the International Space University (ISU) with Todd B. Hawley and Robert D. Richards. The university’s educational approach is interdisciplinary, intercultural and international; its Space Studies Program, offered since 1988, is a nine-week summer course.⁠[5]

Diamandis earned a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and a doctor of medicine degree from Harvard Medical School. Molecular genetics in his undergraduate years, followed by aerospace engineering and medicine, formed his interdisciplinary educational background. MIT’s official report confirms 1988 as the year he received his master’s degree.⁠[6][4]

He later recalled that during his medical studies he paused his medical coursework and returned to MIT to continue engineering research; after completing his studies, entrepreneurship and space projects became his main career direction.⁠[2]

In 1993, Diamandis co-founded Zero Gravity CorporationZero Gravity CorporationZero Gravity Corporation, branded Zero-G, is a US parabolic-flight company serving research, training, public experiences and commercial productions. Founded in 1993 by Peter H. Diamandis, Byron K. Lichtenberg and Ray Cronise, it has suspended flight operations since July 2025.Open the full entry (Zero-G) with Byron Lichtenberg and Ray Cronise, planning to offer the public the brief experience of weightlessness produced by parabolic flight. After about eleven years of preparation and coordination with aviation regulators, the company began commercial flights in 2004.⁠[7]

XPRIZE dates its beginning to May 16, 1994. Diamandis sought to drive commercial spaceflight innovation by offering prize money, setting clear technical goals and having teams compete; the idea was inspired by the Orteig Prize, which prompted Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 transatlantic flight.⁠[8]

In a 2012 interview with Space Quarterly, Diamandis recalled that International MicroSpace, a rocket venture he had been involved with early on, had not succeeded. He said this experience showed him how difficult it was to start a launch company directly and led him to turn to the XPRIZE competition model.⁠[9]

In 1996, XPRIZE announced a commercial spaceflight competition with a $10 million prize. The goal for entrants was to develop a reusable private crewed vehicle and complete two qualifying suborbital flights within a set period. The founding of the foundation and the public announcement of the competition are two separate milestones.⁠[10]

In 1998, Diamandis co-founded Space Adventures with Eric Anderson, focusing on private spaceflight and related experience services. The company later arranged trips to the International Space Station for private clients; those clients flew the missions, and this does not mean Diamandis himself has been to orbit.⁠[11]

In 2004, the SpaceShipOne team led by Burt Rutan and funded by Paul AllenPaul AllenPaul Allen (1953–2018) was an American entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975. After leaving Microsoft’s management in 1983 he founded the investment and project-management firm Vulcan, owned the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, funded private spaceflight projects including SpaceShipOne and Stratolaunch, and created institutions such as the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, giving more than $2.65 billion to philanthropy during his life.Open the full entry won the Ansari XPRIZE. The competition drew 26 teams, and it moved the prize competition promoted by Diamandis from the organizing and fundraising stage to achieving its technical goal and awarding the prize.⁠[8]

In 2007, Diamandis helped arrange for Stephen Hawking to experience weightlessness aboard G-FORCE ONE, a modified Boeing 727. According to his 2021 published recollection, the team included medical staff and ultimately completed eight parabolic maneuvers. The activity was a brief experience of weightlessness aboard an aircraft.⁠[12]

Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil co-founded Singularity University in 2008. A later NASA announcement recorded the date of the founding conference as September 20, 2008. The institution aims to help entrepreneurs and researchers from different fields understand rapidly developing technologies and collaborate across disciplines on social problems.⁠[13]

On February 3, 2009, NASA announced that it had signed a facility lease with Singularity University to hold classes at the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field, California. The announcement listed a nine-week summer program as well as three-day and ten-day courses for corporate executives. NASA also stated that it had provided input in early discussions but was not responsible for running the institution and had no financial interest in it.⁠[13]

On February 21, 2012, Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, co-written by Diamandis and Steven Kotler, was published. The book discusses how technological progress, individual innovators and philanthropic capital can address problems of resources, education and health care, and sets out the authors’ optimistic view of the future.⁠[14]

In 2012, Planetary Resources, promoted by Diamandis and Eric Anderson, publicly announced its plan to develop asteroid resources. Space Adventures’ introduction that April presented it alongside the private spaceflight business as the two men’s entrepreneurial ventures.⁠[11]

In an interview that June, he explained that early work would focus on using low-cost telescopes and remote sensing to find suitable targets; extracting water and metals and building a resource supply business were longer-term ideas, and the business model was still taking shape at the time.⁠[9]

After Abundance was published, Diamandis spoke to a group of entrepreneurs and marketers at Joe Polish’s Genius Network in 2013 about his new program, Abundance360. His personal coach, Strategic Coach co-founder Dan Sullivan, suggested that he tell the entrepreneurs in the room he would run the program for the next 25 years; Abundance360 thus became a long-term program running from 2013 to 2038.⁠[15][15][15][15]

Abundance360 is a year-round leadership community for founders, executives and investors, positioned as Singularity’s highest-level offering and still led by Diamandis himself; members get direct access to his views on exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence and longevity medicine. As of October 2026, Abundance360 described its membership as more than 600 people leading companies ranging from $10 million to $10 billion in size.⁠[15][15][15][16][15]

On March 4, 2014, Human Longevity, Inc. announced its founding in San Diego, co-founded by J. Craig Venter, Robert Hariri and Diamandis, and announced $70 million in initial funding. The company planned to combine genome sequencing, informatics and cell research to build data and research capabilities related to healthy aging.⁠[17]

In 2015, Diamandis and Steven Kotler released Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World. The publisher records the audiobook’s release as February 3; the book centers on exponential technologies, entrepreneurial thinking, and crowdfunding and community building.⁠[18]

Celularity’s 2025 annual meeting proxy statement records that Diamandis was a co-founder of its predecessor, Legacy Celularity, and served as vice chairman from 2016; after the July 2021 business combination he continued as a director of the public company. This role extended his entrepreneurial activity further into cellular medicine.⁠[19]

On October 31, 2018, ConsenSys announced that it had acquired Planetary Resources through an asset purchase, with related staff and the facility in Redmond, Washington, covered by subsequent arrangements. The acquisition announcement did not disclose any proceeds to Diamandis personally.⁠[20][21]

On January 28, 2020, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, co-written by Diamandis and Steven Kotler, was published, discussing the convergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence and their potential effects on industries and daily life.⁠[22]

In 2020, Diamandis co-founded Fountain LifeFountain LifeFountain Life is a U.S. company that provides preventive health testing and longevity medicine on a membership basis. It was formed in 2020 when a longevity clinic opened by orthopedic surgeon William Kapp in Naples, Florida, merged with Fountain Therapeutics, a stem cell startup of Peter Diamandis and Tony Robbins; Robert Hariri is also a co-founder. The company operates diagnostic centers in several U.S. locations, screening members early with full-body MRI, blood biomarkers, genetic sequencing and its in-house AI tool Zori; as of August 2025 it had raised about $108 million in total. Its figures on the effectiveness of its testing are the company’s own claims.Open the full entry with Tony RobbinsTony RobbinsTony Robbins is an American author, speaker, entrepreneur and personal-development coach born on February 29, 1960. He founded Robbins Research International and the Tony Robbins Foundation. Known for large seminars and books including Unlimited Power, Awaken the Giant Within and MONEY: Master the Game, he is also involved in investing, health services and philanthropy.Open the full entry, Robert Hariri and others, a business focused on health testing and preventive medicine. His official personal biography lists him as co-founder and chairman. The company names AI-assisted diagnostics and extending healthy lifespan as its directions of development.⁠[23][24]

Fountain Life later developed dedicated health centers and a health insurance business, and in 2023 announced a $15 million investment from Eos Venture Partners and Newcross Healthcare. Its statements about health improvements are the company’s business goals.⁠[23]

From January 23 to 26, 2021, Diamandis’s team held an Abundance360 event at XPRIZE’s offices in Culver City, California, broadcasting it online while also inviting some people to attend in person. COVID-19 infections followed the event; in a February 12 statement, he disclosed that 24 people, including himself, had tested positive.⁠[25]

In his statement he acknowledged that the sense of security created by serial testing had been mistaken and that not requiring masks throughout was his responsibility, and he apologized for the consequences of his decisions. FOX 11 subsequently reported on the number of infections and his apology.⁠[26][25]

On February 8, 2022, Life Force was published, with the publisher crediting Tony Robbins and Peter H. Diamandis as authors and listing Robert Hariri as a participant. The book brings together precision medicine, health technologies and interviews with relevant figures.⁠[27]

On September 22, 2022, Diamandis’s official YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel published an introductory video for the Moonshots podcast, announcing that it would bring together innovators focused on big problems through conversation. The channel said the program had previously used the name Moonshots and MindsetsMoonshotsMoonshots, formally Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, is a technology podcast founded by Peter Diamandis. It discusses artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship and technological change, and launched its Moonshots LIVE gathering in Los Angeles in 2026.Open the full entry; its subsequent interviews became one of his main public outlets for discussing artificial intelligence and other technology topics.⁠[28]

In 2023, Exponential Organizations 2.0, written by Diamandis together with Singularity University founding executive director Salim IsmailSalim IsmailSalim Ismail is a business strategist, author and investor, lead author of Exponential Organizations and co-founder and chairman of the organizational transformation platform OpenExO. He previously ran Yahoo’s internal incubator Brickhouse and from 2008 served as founding executive director of Singularity University; he is a board member of the XPRIZE Foundation, a regular on the Moonshots podcast hosted by Peter Diamandis, and a partner at the venture firm Exponential Venture Capital.Open the full entry, author Michael S. Malone and more than 80 OpenExO community members, was released, fully updating the content with the experience gained in the eight years since the first edition of Exponential Organizations.⁠[29][16][30][30]

On May 31 of that year, Ismail appeared as a guest on episode 46 of Moonshots; he later became a regular co-host of the program, describing himself as a “Moonshot Mate.”⁠[31][29][29]

In November 2023, XPRIZE launched the seven-year Healthspan competition with a total purse of $101 million, targeting research on age-related changes in muscle, cognitive and immune function. Diamandis took part in its public presentation as founder and executive chairman. The functional improvement goals set by the competition still need to be tested through clinical research.⁠[32]

Starting with episode 173 on May 22, 2025, Dave Blundin and Salim Ismail frequently appeared together on Moonshots; physicist and computer scientist Alex Wissner-GrossAlex Wissner-GrossAlex Wissner-Gross (Alexander D. Wissner-Gross) is an American physicist, computer scientist, entrepreneur and investor with three bachelor’s degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard, who proposed the “causal entropic forces” theory defining intelligence as “a force to maximize future freedom of action.” He founded the government intelligent-systems company Gemedy and the investment firm Reified, co-founded the AI physics laboratory Physical Superintelligence (PSI) in 2026 and serves as its chief scientist, and is a co-host of the Moonshots podcast hosted by Peter Diamandis and author of the daily newsletter The Innermost Loop.Open the full entry appeared with Blundin on episode 185 on July 29, and from episode 190 on August 27 the three often joined Diamandis to discuss artificial intelligence and other technology news, with some episode titles referring to them simply as “Dave,” “Salim” and “AWG.” Wissner-Gross describes himself in his X bio as a co-host of Moonshots, and Blundin is also introduced as a co-host of the program.⁠[31][31][31][31][33][16]

The three men’s collaboration with Diamandis extends beyond the podcast. Blundin is founder and general partner of Exponential Ventures (XPV), managing partner of the venture capital firm Link Ventures and a board member of the XPRIZE Foundation, while Diamandis is a co-founder and partner of Link-XPV; Wissner-Gross serves as a venture advisor to Link Ventures; and Ismail co-wrote Exponential Organizations 2.0 with Diamandis.⁠[6][6][16][6][6][30]

On April 14, 2026, We Are as Gods, co-written by Diamandis and Steven Kotler, was published. The book continues the two authors’ discussion of technological acceleration and the human future, taking as its theme the possible changes brought by technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics.⁠[34]

On August 11, 2026, XPRIZE announced 20 finalist teams in the Healthspan competition, 10 of which each received a $1 million milestone award. Subsequent testing is scheduled for 2026–2029, with the grand prize to be judged in 2030. Diamandis continued to comment in the announcement as founder and executive chairman; reaching the finals and winning milestone awards does not mean the final health improvement goals have been achieved.⁠[32]

Peter Diamandis is a co-founder and partner of Link-XPV and a co-founder and partner of BOLD Capital Partners. Link-XPV, XPV Fund 1, BOLD and the Link Ventures main fund are different brands or legal vehicles, and this entry does not merge them.⁠[6]

Diamandis founded XPRIZE and serves as its executive chairman. XPRIZE uses large incentive competitions to drive progress in fields including space, health, robotics, climate, quantum and AI; competition purses and the value of the research and development they spur are measures of the organization’s impact and are not personal assets.⁠[1]

He co-founded Singularity University and founded or co-founded multiple companies, including Zero Gravity, Human Longevity and Celularity. His own page says he has started more than 25 companies; that number is self-reported and cannot be taken to mean that all of them are still operating or under his control.⁠[1]

BOLD’s website lists him as a partner, focused on exponential technologies, long-term health and grand challenges. BOLD’s public statements of fund size vary by date, and this biographical entry does not treat the firm’s AUM, committed capital or portfolio valuations as personal wealth.⁠[35]

The Link profile and Diamandis’s own page describe XPV as an AI venture fund of about $500 million; the 2026 Form ADV disclosed a current GAV of $138,519,834 for the XPV Fund 1 master-feeder arrangement. The two have different definitions and dates, are recorded separately, and are not mechanically reconciled.⁠[36]

Diamandis studied molecular genetics and aerospace engineering at MIT and earned a doctor of medicine degree from Harvard Medical School. A medical degree is not a statement that he currently practices clinically.⁠[1]

The scale of XPRIZE competitions, the size of the BOLD and XPV funds, the market value of public companies, portfolio fundraising and media influence all belong to different entities. Public materials are insufficient to calculate his personal net worth, fund carry, holdings in any single investment or realized gains.⁠[1]

Diamandis and Alex Wissner-Gross co-wrote the long essay Solve Everything: Achieving Abundance by 2035, which sketches a scenario in which artificial intelligence advances at an accelerating rate over the next decade and grand challenges in medicine, energy and industry are systematically solved. The essay states that its scenarios, timelines and technical extrapolations are theoretical and should not be interpreted as guarantees of future events; the two authors also note that they used artificial intelligence in writing it.⁠[37][37][37][37]

XPRIZE Foundation: Founder and executive chairman. Official link: https://www.xprize.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[10]

Singularity University: Co-founder. Official link: https://www.su.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[38]

SEDS: Early co-founder. Official link: https://seds.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3]

International Space University: Co-founder. Official link: https://www.isunet.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[5]

Zero Gravity Corporation: Co-founder. Official link: https://www.gozerog.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[7]

Space Adventures: Co-founder. Official link: https://spaceadventures.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

Human Longevity: Co-founder. Official link: https://www.humanlongevity.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[17]

Celularity: Co-founder and director. Official link: https://celularity.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

Fountain Life: Co-founder and chairman. Official link: https://www.fountainlife.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[24]

BOLD Capital Partners: Co-founder and partner. Official link: https://boldcapitalpartners.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[35]

Link-XPV: Co-founder and partner. Official link: https://www.linkventures.com/about (opens in a new window)⁠[6]

Personal website: Peter Diamandis’s official biography, articles and programs. Official link: https://www.diamandis.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[1]

X account: @PeterDiamandis. Official link: https://x.com/PeterDiamandis (opens in a new window)⁠[24]