Jeff Bezos wants to establish a permanent outpost on the moon and colonize space. Richard Branson wants to make space flight as common as air travel. Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars and make humanity multi-planetary.
IBX’s Kam Ghaffarian wants to go even further: stardom.
“Combining altruism with doing something purposeful and beneficial, and combining that with capitalism,” he told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan at a space symposium in Colorado Springs. Combined to make a positive impact, that’s the common denominator: “IBX’s vision is to protect our home, our planet, and then find new homes and stars and everything that goes with it. So in terms of space, if we say humanity. The ultimate destiny is interstellar travel and going to the stars, then we need to take a lot of intermediate steps to do that.
If it weren’t for his track record, this might sound far-fetched. Ghaffarian has been instrumental in spearheading the new space economy, co-founding and investing in a group of commercial space ventures.
Publicly traded intuitive machineGhaffarian is co-founder and executive chairman of the company, which recently made history when its Odysseus spacecraft successfully landed on the moon, becoming the first commercial lander to do so.
Ghaffarian is also co-founder and chairman of Axiom Space, which now regularly sends private astronauts on commercial missions to the International Space Station and was the first company approved to connect modules and provide full-service missions to the International Space Station. Your own space station.
He also serves as executive chairman of Quantum Space, which focuses on deep space commerce and communications via satellite highways extending from Earth orbit to the moon and beyond; X-Energy, which he founded, developed an operating nuclear reactor that reportedly “Intrinsically safe by design,” and nuclear propulsion capabilities.
His family office IBX (which stands for “Imagine, Believe, Execute”) is at the center of this space exploration constellation.
“We have to complete all the intermediate steps. Elon (Musk) and Jeff (Bezos), my dear friends, are able to go to LEO (low Earth orbit) first, to be able to go to the moon and Mars, because we have to first Do this before you can enter the stars.
Follow and listen to CNBC “List Space” Podcasthosted by Morgan Brennan, wherever you get your podcasts.
Unlike other well-known billionaires who have built commercial aerospace companies, Ghaffarian made his fortune through the aerospace industry. He did not focus on getting into space, but took advantage of falling costs to build space infrastructure and commercial activities.
The Iranian-born entrepreneur moved to the United States nearly four decades ago and co-founded a government services company called Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, which became a top NASA contractor before being acquired by KBR in 2018.
“If you create a great company and develop incredible technology but no one wants to buy it or there’s no business case, you’re not going to make any difference,” Gaffarian said. “How to Create A business model that allows you to have a purpose, make a difference, and… generate huge returns for investors?”
Ghaffarian believes the space economy will be worth trillions of dollars — and sooner than many realize. He believes technological leaps in artificial intelligence and quantum computing are critical to unlocking the full potential of space.
He said microgravity-based drug research and industrial manufacturing, sustainable propulsion and energy, and lunar infrastructure construction will be capabilities and services that will be in greater demand in the coming years.
“It’s normal for people to not appreciate it very much… When did people start appreciating the AI revolution – 10 years ago? Not really, right? All of a sudden, we have this herd mentality and everyone is jumping on board.” said Ghaffarian, who also quoted an earlier letter, Amazon, apple, Tesla and SpaceX, and even air travel, as a template for the space world. “I think we’re in the early stages of space exploration, space ecosystem, space economy, and it’s still not there, but I believe it’s taking off and it’s going to grow rapidly, and I really believe they’re underestimating the market.” scale.
The space billionaire’s businesses will continue to target the stars as investors take notice.
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