Billionaire Jeff Bezos Says Future Is So Bright That No One ‘Alive’ Now, Should Be ‘Discouraged’—Because In 20 Years, ‘Millions Of People Will Be Living In Space’

Billionaire Jeff Bezos built an empire selling everything from books to toilet paper. Then he launched himself into space. Now, the Amazon founder and Blue Origin boss wants you to stop freaking out about AI, robots, or whatever the future holds — because in his view, the best is still ahead.

On October 3, during Italian Tech Week 2025, Bezos sat down with Ferrari and Stellantis chairman John Elkann for a conversation that quickly shifted from self-driving tractors to interplanetary living. At one point, Bezos made a bold prediction: “I believe in the next couple of decades, I believe there will be millions of people living in space. That’s how fast this is going to accelerate.”

And despite all the hand-wringing about automation, job loss, or existential dread about artificial intelligence, Bezos insisted that humanity won’t lose its sense of purpose. “I find so many people nervous or anxious or even a little discouraged or depressed by thinking about these coming,” he said. “You know, right now computers can easily beat us at chess. Once they can compete us at anything, do we have meaning in our lives? I think the answer to that is 100% yes. We will still have meaning in our lives.”

That optimism wasn’t just philosophical — it was deeply practical. Bezos outlined projects already underway at Blue Origin, including a hydrogen-powered lunar lander designed to keep rocket fuel stable at 20 Kelvin — a temperature just 20 degrees above absolute zero. “Hydrogen is the highest performing fuel for rocketry,” he explained. But it’s also notoriously difficult to store long-term in space. His team is working to fix that.

He also revealed ongoing research into building solar panels directly from lunar regolith — essentially, turning moon dust into power. “If you’re going to go to the moon and stay on the moon, you need to be using the resources of the moon,” Bezos said.

And staying is part of the plan. In fact, he called Earth’s only natural satellite “a gift from the universe,” pointing out that its lower gravity and short travel distance from Earth make it an ideal springboard to the rest of the solar system. “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.

Jeff Bezos at the Gordon Conference Center, Oct. 25, 2017. Public domain.

In the next 10 to 20 years, he expects massive data centers to be built in orbit — powered by uninterrupted 24/7 solar energy and immune to Earth’s weather. “We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centers in space in the next couple of decades,” Bezos said.

And even though rockets might not be landing in urban downtowns anytime soon — “rockets tend to be very noisy,” he admitted — Bezos believes hypersonic travel will eventually reshape life on Earth, too.

But at the core of his message was a simple challenge: stop dreading what’s next. From AI to lunar living, Bezos views this moment as one of the most exciting times to be alive. “I don’t see how anybody can be discouraged who is alive right now,” he said. And when one of the richest men in human history says it with a straight face — from a stage in Italy while planning to launch humans off-world — maybe it’s worth listening.