BenzingaJeff Bezos Says He Doesn't Understand Why Anybody Alive Now Would Be 'Discouraged'—Because Soon, 'Millions Of People Will Be Living In Space'Jeannine Mancini
Fri, October 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM EDT
4 min read
Jeff Bezos says the future is so bright, he "doesn't see how anybody can be discouraged who is alive right now." Speaking at Italian Tech Week 2025 earlier this month with Ferrari and Stellantis chair John Elkann, the Amazon and Blue Origin founder laid out a plan to launch humanity into orbit — literally.
The conversation started on Earth but didn't stay there long. Bezos dove headfirst into space — predicting colonies, building data centers off-world, and using the moon as a gas station. "I believe, in the next couple of decades, there will be millions of people living in space. That's how fast this is going to accelerate," he said.
Bezos isn't guessing. He's building. He explained to Elkann that Blue Origin is preparing to launch its New Glenn vehicle by early November, delivering NASA's Escapade satellite into orbit around Mars.
It's also developing a hydrogen-powered lunar lander equipped with solar-powered cryocoolers that keep fuel stable at 20 degrees Kelvin — just 20 degrees above absolute zero. "Hydrogen is the highest performing fuel for rocketry," he explained, but it's historically unusable on deep space missions because it boils away. His team is working to change that.
He also said they're doing R&D on how to build solar cells from lunar regolith — moon dust — so future lunar settlements can generate power using local resources. "If you're going to go to the moon and stay on the moon, you need to be using the resources of the moon, you need to be harvesting the moon to make that cost effective," Bezos told Elkann.
But he's not just talking about setting foot on the surface — the long-term goal is launching from there. "It takes about 30 times less energy to lift a kilogram of mass off the moon than it does to lift it off the Earth," he said. With its low gravity and three-and-a-half-day proximity to Earth, he called the moon "a gift from the universe." In Bezos' world, the moon becomes a fueling station to push humanity further out into the solar system.
But his space ambitions aren't limited to exploration. Bezos also sees orbit as the future of tech infrastructure. "We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centers in space in the next couple of decades," he said. Why? Because there are no clouds, no weather, and solar power runs 24/7.
Even faster travel on Earth isn't off the table. He floated the idea of hypersonic point-to-point travel — rockets as transportation — though he acknowledged one obvious obstacle: "Rockets tend to be very noisy, so people probably don't want them like in their downtown areas."
But the big picture isn't about escaping Earth — it's about expanding beyond it. Bezos says humans won't need to live in space. They'll want to. "They'll mostly be living there because they want to," he said. With robots handling most of the labor, people will be free to settle, not just survive.
Bezos also addressed the growing anxiety around artificial intelligence, a topic that's sparked just as much fear as fascination. "I find so many people nervous or anxious or even a little discouraged or depressed by thinking about these coming," he told Elkann. Posing the question himself, Bezos asked whether life would still have meaning in a future where AI can do everything better than us. His answer: "I think the answer to that is 100% yes. We will still have meaning in our lives."
For Bezos, this moment in time isn't frightening — it's full of potential. Whether it's AI, interplanetary living, or lunar infrastructure, he sees progress as something to embrace, not avoid. And for those feeling overwhelmed by how fast it's all moving? He already said it best: he doesn't see how anybody can be discouraged who is alive right now.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tech/science/articles/jeff-bezos-says-doesnt-understand-190104082.html
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