Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said millions of people could live in space within the next few decades. He described an ambitious vision for humanity’s future beyond Earth during a rare public appearance at Italian Tech Week in Turin on Friday.
In a conversation with John Elkann, chairman of Stellantis and member of Italy’s Agnelli family, Bezos said people would live in space “mostly because they want to.”
The founder of the aerospace company Blue Origin said robots would perform most physical labour, while vast artificial intelligence data centres would operate in orbit.
His remarks come amid growing competition among technology billionaires over space exploration. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, has said that humans could establish a colony on Mars by 2050 with up to one million inhabitants.
Bezos has previously argued that building orbital habitats is a more sustainable option than colonising planets. His latest comments reflect his continued belief that space will become an extension of human civilisation rather than a distant frontier.
He also addressed the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, calling the current surge in investment a “good kind of bubble.” Bezos said the trend was “industrial rather than financial,” suggesting that it represents real progress rather than speculation.
“There has never been a better time to be excited about the future,” he said.