Jeff Bezos to sell $1B of personal Amazon stock each year to help fund Blue Origin

[William Gayde]

If you had an idea that you really believed in, how much money would you invest in it? If you ask Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the answer is $1 billion. Per year.

Bezos plans to sell $1 billion worth of his personal Amazon stock every year to help fund Blue Origin. At the annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Bezos announced his plan to help boost Blue Origin's rockets as high as their goals currently are. He has moved up to the second spot on the world's wealthiest list, so he certainly has the savings to accomplish this. With a net worth close to $80 billion, Bezos can continue his aggressive funding for decades to come.

What will this new cash injection do for Blue Origin? It will certainly help the emerging spaceflight company stay competitive with SpaceX. The two most prominent private aerospace companies are working to develop a commercial space transportation and tourism industry. Blue Origin has plans to start offering 11 minute space rides for wealthy tourists coming up next year. With this business model, Blue Origin can become a financially profitable company off of ticket sales alone.

SpaceX on the other hand has been heavily focusing on commercial launches of satellites and delivering gear to the ISS. Elon Musk has also announced plans for sending travelers around the moon and to Mars in the coming years.

Bezos' personal investment as well as funding from satellite customers will help bring down the cost of space travel. Bezos said he wants to make space travel as common as airline flights by reusing rockets to bring down the cost by 99 percent. He's has made it clear though that he's in no rush to get the program off the ground. His personal funding is a sure sign that things will start to advance much quicker in the future however.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/68827-jeff-bezos-sell-1b-personal-amazon-stock-each.html

 

[p51d007]

His money...he can spend it as he pleases.

 

[alabama man]

I would like he rather spend it on education instead of getting his name in history books. It would be nice to go to space but there are too many problems here that we should take care of first, most of them solvable trough education like over breeding and pollution. Hope Space X and Blue Origin don't become Space Origin in the spirit of Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"Bezos said he wants to make space travel as common as airline flights".
Unfortunately I can't see that happening in my lifetime.
"With a net worth close to $80 billion".
Even more unfortunately, I can't see that happening to me either.

 

[Reehahs]

I would like he rather spend it on education instead of getting his name in history books. It would be nice to go to space but there are too many problems here that we should take care of first, most of them solvable trough education like over breeding and pollution. Hope Space X and Blue Origin don't become Space Origin in the spirit of Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

Over breeding and pollution are just faces of a dice called resource management that people like to horde.

 

[mbrowne5061]

I would like he rather spend it on education instead of getting his name in history books. It would be nice to go to space but there are too many problems here that we should take care of first, most of them solvable trough education like over breeding and pollution. Hope Space X and Blue Origin don't become Space Origin in the spirit of Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

There were still problems in Europe when we sailed across the oceans to new continents. No mater what we do, there will always be problems.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

I would like he rather spend it on education instead of getting his name in history books. It would be nice to go to space but there are too many problems here that we should take care of first, most of them solvable trough education like over breeding and pollution. Hope Space X and Blue Origin don't become Space Origin in the spirit of Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

There were still problems in Europe when we sailed across the oceans to new continents. No mater what we do, there will always be problems.

You're right, but it still makes Bill Gates look all the more impressive. I've never seen Bill in aviators and a flight suit looking all bad-a$$ standing in front of one of his personal projects.

I guess so long as no one confuses Jeff with philanthropist it's no big deal.

And to be fair - we definitely need ultra-rich people to fund things like this. You can't leave it up to the govt to fund exploration - it would never get done.

 

[mbrowne5061]

You're right, but it still makes Bill Gates look all the more impressive. I've never seen Bill in aviators and a flight suit looking all bad-a$$ standing in front of one of his personal projects.

I guess so long as no one confuses Jeff with philanthropist it's no big deal.

And to be fair - we definitely need ultra-rich people to fund things like this. You can't leave it up to the govt to fund exploration - it would never get done.

Couldn't agree with you more there. The Space Race of the 50s, 60s and 70s was just a thinly veiled series of ballistic missile tests. It let the USA and USSR test everything from motors, to fuels, to heat shields, without agitating the public as much as 'actual' ICBM tests would have. Up until the Saturn V, all the rockets of the space race were modified ballistic missiles.