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down to pitch me on XPRIZE. At the time, I’d just sold my first company, Telecom Technologies, a firm I’d convinced my husband and brother-in-law to co-found in 1993. As I told an interviewer back then, I was beginning to explore my passion for space, an interest that had first taken root as I gazed up at the skies of Iran, where I grew up. Peter saw the interview and found me at just the right time, telling me about his idea to compile a chunk of money and incentivize people across the globe to create a commercially viable, privately financed, reusable spaceship. There was no commercial market for space at the time. The regulatory framework didn’t allow it, for one, and since the start of human flight in 1961 to that time, only around 300 people had flown to space, less than 8 percent women. The average American didn’t pay that much mind, anyway, and some even believed that spending money in space while we have problems on Earth was a waste of government money. Those who Peter had pitched before me, all had declined either because they felt it was too risky or they had a hard time grasping how XPRIZE could make a marked difference considering the billions of dollars already backing NASA. Some just plainly told him: “You’re crazy.” I was then and remain today a massive believer in the power of entrepreneurs, and the unlimited possibilities of the creative and motivated mind. I’d gone back to school and been working on a master’s degree in astronomy but realized there weren’t many opportunities for non-professional astronauts. I felt so strongly about Peter’s idea that I eventually convinced my family we should back the $10 million initiative. I looked at it as an investment in the future I believe in and not a charitable donation. What a great decision that turned out to be. Some 26 teams across 11 countries took to competing, and the winning team eventually turned into Virgin Galactic, which went public in 2019 at a valuation close to $1 billion. The Ansari XPRIZE showed us just how powerful this model could be. By the time we awarded the prize in 2004, we’d ignited a new era for commercial space exploration, shifting policy in the process. Today’s crop of space innovators has created businesses that are viable in orbit, that have exponentially advanced innovation in space technologies, and most of them have focused their attention on using space to solve key problems on earth. As we celebrated the winning team, we realized that if we could reach the stars through this competition, we could take on any challenge. We focused our energy on the biggest problems in the world, where governments and the private sector had failed to create a viable solution. Naturally, that took us toward conservation, climate and sustainability, and education. Climate change is the most pressing challenge facing our planet; it is at the root of so many other issues, which is why it’s such an important part of our work.

he day before something becomes a breakthrough, it’s merely a crazy idea. As an entrepreneur, I was intimately familiar with that truth back in the early 2000s, when Peter Diamandis tracked me

By Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE, as told by Shawn Shinneman

How a moonshot idea inspired 30 years of XPRIZE innovation.

From the Desk of:

The incredible thing about all of these gifts is that they keep on giving.

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Illustration: Harol Bustos

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To date, we’ve launched 30 XPRIZE competitions totalling more than half a billion dollars. Those prizes have generated $7.2 billion worth of capital investment, both by competing teams and investment into those teams. For obvious reasons, that first prize remains one of my favorites. But others spring to mind: Our ongoing prize for gigaton-scale carbon removal, which, in addition to causing a spike in the number of companies created to remove CO2, is also bringing legitimacy to the carbon credit industry with real, verifiable hard numbers. And then there was XPRIZE Global Learning, which challenged teams to create software enabling children anywhere in the world to teach themselves basic reading, writing, and arithmetic in 15 months. I had the chance to visit remote villages in Tanzania, see kids using the tablets, and witness just how much it impacted not only the children, but also the parents, siblings, and village elders.

Prizes continue to grow. Today, our current programming includes what we call our “big three,” each carrying with it a nine-figure payout. Difficulty has ratcheted up in parallel. The $100 million Carbon Removal prize is inspired in part by the IPCC report clearly stating that transitioning to sustainable energy sources simply isn’t enough, that we’ll also need to develop the technology to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and oceans cost-effectively, at scale. Progress has been extremely promising, and I look forward to celebrating our progress with winning teams next spring. Meanwhile, at $119 million, XPRIZE Water Scarcity is the largest prize we’ve ever launched. This competition is designed to revolutionize the desalination industry by spurring the innovation of reliable, sustainable, and affordable technologies to unlock affordable access to Earth’s ocean water year round. Our goal is to create a world where clean water is equitably and sustainably abundant, enabling people and the environment to prosper. There are nations today facing shortages of that vital ingredient of life. If we don’t find a solution, we may someday see mass migration, which invariably creates social chaos and instability in the political systems of the world. Finally, the $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan aims to extend healthy life for everyone; the winning team will have demonstrated that, through therapeutic treatment, they can restore muscle, cognitive, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years, with a goal of 20 years. Currently, people may be living longer, but their healthy years have hardly increased, which has come with an economic burden. We aim to create healthier, happier people who can be more productive and positive contributors to society. Every competition we design is part of our mission to realize an equitable world of abundance. We want to impact communities long-term, so we consider the effect our competitions will have in the years before we award the money and the many years that follow. The incredible thing about all of these gifts is that they keep on giving. Every prize elicits multiple viable ideas and new businesses that bring solutions to market well after we present a check.

We realized that if we could reach the stars through this competition, we could take on any challenge.

I’m a firm believer that the goal of any nonprofit organization is ultimately to close up shop, having solved the issue it was formed to solve. I feel no differently about XPRIZE, even though with the lofty goal we have, the road toward that horizon is much longer. We want to create an equitable, abundant world of clean energy, of health, of sustainable resources. We are all about action versus talks and reports, so we’ll be honing in on certain target dates, and then putting a spotlight on the breakthroughs society will need to reach stated benchmarks. We’re creating a roadmap to this future — not only for our own work, but to inspire the world to collective action. It’s crucial that we form a common approach accessible to everyone from policymakers to impact investors, governments, and more. Three full decades since Peter tracked me down, XPRIZE stands as a testament to the ingenuity of entrepreneurs. Our mission is to sustainably and responsibly build a world of abundance for all. I may not get to witness it in my lifetime, but I believe we will reach that goal and XPRIZE is already a big catalyst.

Click through the highlighted projects below:

Called the Ansari XPRIZE, the inaugural XPRIZE brought space exploration to private industry for the first time, spurring massive investment in the years since. The winners of the $10 million prize, which was awarded in 2004, would go on to license their technology to Richard Branson to create Virgin Galactic.

The One That Started It All:

The Global Learning XPRIZE incentivized reliable and scalable edtech to address a critical gap in education — the more than 250 million children globally who can’t read, write, or do basic math. The $15 million prize was awarded in 2019. Millions of students have since benefited from the finalists’ technology.

Increasing Access to Education:

One of three ongoing competitions with nine-figure prize pools, the $100 million Carbon Removal XPRIZE incentivizes technology capable of gigaton-scale carbon removal, a key ingredient in the quest to sidestep the worst effects of climate change.

Raising the Stakes on Carbon Removal:

Illustration: Harol Bustos

By Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE, as told to Shawn Shinneman

How a moonshot idea inspired 30 years of XPRIZE innovation.

FROM THE DESK OF:

a purus vitae lacus suscipit lobortis a sit amet quam. Vestibulum vulputate tincidunt enim, sit amet congue purus. Cras ultrices congue leo, ac pharetra leo ultrices ut. Pellentesque tristique nibh sed tincidunt pretium. Proin tincidunt tellus lacus, eget vestibulum turpis malesuada id. Nam eleifend maximus felis ornare pulvinar. Nunc sit amet magna massa consectetur, blandit purus id, maximus elit. Cras hendrerit ex a sem faucibus dictum. Quisque a mollis metus, vel tempor augue. Ut egestas venenatis odio non ultrices.

Diamandis had been getting showered in “no.” At the time he first came up with the concept — 1994 — there was no commercial market for space. The regulatory framework didn’t allow it, for one, but the average American didn’t pay that much mind, anyway. The enthusiasm accompanying the space race of the ’60s and ’70s had sputtered out. But Peter’s pitch found me at just the right time. It had been hard for others to grasp how his idea — to compile a chunk of money and incentivize people to create a commercially viable, privately financed spaceship — could make a marked difference considering the billions of dollars already backing NASA. That’s how people put it when they were being nice, at least. Others were more direct: “You’re crazy,” he’d heard. Or, “You’re going to get people killed.” I was then and remain today a massive believer in the power of entrepreneurs, the strength of the creative and motivated mind. I’d just sold my company and, as I told an interviewer back then, was pursuing my passion for space — working on a master’s degree in astronomy but already realizing there weren’t many opportunities for non-professional astronauts. Peter saw the article and tracked me down, and I felt so strongly about his idea that I eventually convinced my family we should back the $10 million initiative. If we could do it in space, we figured, we could do it with anything. We focused our energy on the biggest problems in the world, where governments and the private sector had failed to create a solution. Naturally, that took us toward conservation and sustainability. Climate change is the most pressing challenge facing our planet; it is at the root of so many other issues, which is why it’s become a throughline for our work.

If we could do it in space, we figured, we could do it with anything.

To date, we’ve launched 30 XPRIZEs totalling more than half a billion dollars, creating $7 billion worth of impact and investment capital, research and development, and awareness. For obvious reasons, that first prize remains one of my favorites. But others spring to mind: Our ongoing prize for gigaton-level carbon extraction, which, in addition to causing a spike in the number of companies created to remove CO2 at gigaton level, is also bringing legitimacy to the carbon credit industry with real, hard numbers. And then there was our global learning competition, which challenged teams to create software enabling children anywhere in the world to teach themselves basic reading, writing, and arithmetic in 15 months. I had the chance to visit remote villages in Tanzania, see kids using the tablets, and witness just how much it meant to parents, siblings, and village elders. Prizes continue to grow. Today, our current programming includes a sort of “big three,” each carrying with it a six-figure payout. Difficulty has ratcheted up in parallel. The $100 million gigaton-level carbon extraction prize is based on the IPCC report clearly stating that transitioning to sustainable energy sources simply isn’t enough, that we’ll also need to develop the technology to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere cost-effectively, at scale. Progress has been extremely promising, and I feel certain we’ll award the prize. Meanwhile, at $119 million, the water scarcity prize is the largest we’ve ever launched. There are nations today facing shortages of that vital ingredient of life. If we don’t find a solution, we may someday see mass migration, which invariably creates social chaos and instability in the political systems of the world. Finally, the $101 million healthspan award aims for longevity; the winning team will have demonstrated that, through therapeutic treatment, they can restore muscle, cognitive, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years. Currently, people may be living longer, but their healthy years have hardly increased, which has come with an economic burden. We aim to create healthier, happier people who can be more productive and positive contributors to society.

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The One That Started It All: Called the Ansari XPRIZE,the inaugural XPRIZE brought space exploration to private industry for the first time, spurring massive investment in the years since. The winners of the $10 million prize, which was awarded in 2004, would go on to license their technology to Richard Branson to create Virgin Galactic.

Increasing Access to Education: The Global Learning XPRIZE incentivized reliable and scalable edtech to address a critical gap in education — the more than 250 million children globally who can’t read, write, or do basic math. The $15 million prize was awarded in 2019. Millions of students have since benefited from the finalists’ technology.