Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has spent $2 Million annually on anti-ageing treatments to try to reverse his biological age and regain the appearance of an 18 year-old body, earning the respect of investors such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. His efforts have drawn much interest.
Bezos recently invested in Altos Labs, a start-up exploring biological reprogramming to rejuvenate cells and even entire bodies.
1. Mark Zuckerberg
In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg co-founded social networking website Facebook with three Harvard classmates. Today, this global social network counts more than four billion users and Zuckerberg from White Plains is considered to be one of the richest people worldwide with an estimated net worth of more than $19 billion according to Forbes.
In 2016, Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan established the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, pledged $3 billion over 10 years toward basic science research to cure all diseases by 2029. He also signed the Giving Pledge with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and 200 other billionaires who pledged most of their wealth away.
Recently, Mark Zuckerberg has become increasingly preoccupied with issues surrounding life and death. In 2015, he launched a division of Google called Calico to explore ways to extend human lifespans; since then it has been rebranded Verily Life Sciences and focused on wearable tech like smartwatches and fitness trackers as well as researching age-reversal therapies such as gene therapies to slow or reverse the process of aging.
According to reports, this billionaire investor is also engaged in longevity research. In 2021, it was said he was among the main backers of Altos Labs which developed technology that can “rejuvenate” cells through activating Yamanaka factors, with hopes of eliminating senescent cells which are thought to contribute to disease and aging.
He has also funded a project that seeks to extend mouse lifespan by altering their genes. Furthermore, Zuckerberg has invested in Hawaii real estate including an old sugarcane plantation and beachfront property with an escape hatch, in addition to building an underground bunker covering 5,000 sq feet at his Kauai property, according to Wired.
2. Larry Ellison
Since 2011, millionaires and billionaires alike have invested significant portions of their fortunes into immortality research – an endeavor aiming to find ways to combat aging. Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Oracle founder Larry Ellison are all among those investing millions into longevity tech.
Oracle founder Larry Ellison has donated more than $330 million in anti-aging research, Vox reports. He’s helped fund Calico, an Alphabet company dedicated to improving human lifespan, as well as the Methuselah Foundation and multiple longevity biotech start-ups. Ellison also invested in Altos Labs which attempts to alter cells so as to slow or reverse aging processes.
The company’s Series A raised an estimated $270 million and boasts an impressive team of domain experts: Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte is an esteemed professor at Stanford and an expert on stem cells; Steve Horvath has garnered several geneticist awards and works extensively on regenerative medicine; while Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka won for successfully reprogramming mammalian cells into stem cells.
As with many Silicon Valley peers, Ellison is well known for leading an extravagant lifestyle – he owns multiple yachts including this one and sponsors Oracle Team USA in America’s Cup yacht racing events. Ellison also pledged his philanthropy by signing The Giving Pledge by promising to donate 1% or more of his wealth annually.
Christopher Wareham is an advocate of healthy living and is fond of eating fruits and vegetables. Additionally, he takes metformin (a diabetes drug commonly taken by Silicon Valley biohackers as an anti-ageing supplement). But bioethicist Christopher Wareham cautions that technological advancement may exacerbate social inequalities that already plague society.
3. Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $112 billion as of March 2019. As founder and CEO of Amazon and Blue Origin, Bezos holds the title as wealthiest individual worldwide with his net worth estimated to reach over one trillion USD as of March 2019. Graduating with honors from Princeton University with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science in 1986 before working his way through various Wall Street positions before creating Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore to sell books; now offering many different services via the platform e-commerce business model.
Bezos also founded the bezos Day One Fund to assist homeless families. He established spaceflight company Blue Origin with the goal of eliminating polluting industries from Earth in order to preserve our environment, purchased The Washington Post in 2013, as well as several media companies such as HuffingtonPost and many more websites that operate under his ownership.
Bezos is currently in a relationship with news anchor Lauren Sanchez and they have been seen together on numerous vacations together, such as their December 2021 trip to St. Barts and May 2023 yachting voyage. Sanchez owns Black Ops Aviation – an aerial film company.
Bezos has invested in numerous tech and biotech companies such as Nautilus Biotechnology and Sonder Holdings, holding large stakes in each. He serves on both boards of directors for each. Bezos recently began exploring reverse aging techniques by testing a serum designed to slow the human aging process – this trial is said to be working but early stage trials still underway; Bezos has not signed onto the Giving Pledge like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have, so it remains unknown how much of his wealth he plans to donate over time.
4. Elon Musk
Elon Musk is using his fortune to combat the effects of aging like many of his Silicon Valley peers, investing in biotech startups that attempt to reverse cellular aging; eating healthily; and working with more than 30 anti-ageing scientists who help him stay young and vibrant.
However, unlike his fellow billionaires, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO isn’t interested in living forever. In an interview, he stated that living too long could stifle innovation and cause society to stagnate.
He believes that humanity will eventually collapse as a result of declining birthrates and rapidly aging populations. Recent years have witnessed drastic decreases in birthrates across multiple countries, prompting leaders to warn about an imminent population crash and prompting powerful individuals around the globe to fight aging through various means.
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have donated millions to research on an elixir of life, while Larry Ellison invested in companies like Calico – owned by Google – which seeks ways to extend human lifespans. Jeff Bezos invested his personal fortune into funding startups like Altos Labs which seeks to remove dysfunctional cells that contribute to aging while stimulating cell rejuvenation.
But the world’s richest person has made his views clear: He does not support life extension and this seems like more than an offhand tweet or casual comment; they appear well thought-out given his relentless pursuit of futurist technologies.
5. Bill Gates
Bill Gates is one of the world’s first centibillionaires (a billionaire who has given away more than half their fortune), as well as one of its most powerful people. Co-founding Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 and leading it to global leadership status both professionally and personally computing, Gates retired from daily operations at Microsoft in 2008. However, he remains active both professionally and philanthropically through creating the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which now invests in health technology projects through investing in health projects through investing through health projects; as well as chairing several private companies such as Cascade Investment and Breakthrough Energy.
Last year, Gates made headlines after claiming he had reversed aging in monkeys using gene therapy and other medical advances. He claimed the next step should be reversal in humans as his firm, Life Biosciences, received substantial investment funding from investors like Russian-Israeli tech billionaire Yuri Milner and US venture capitalist Peter Brown.
Google CALICO and Apple Tony Reno’s anti-ageing therapies have drawn criticism from experts of ageing research as being too “egocentric”. Even Bill Gates voiced doubt about them.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was created in 2000 with an aim of funding global public health. Since that time, over $59 billion have been donated in grants since their start-up date; while Gates and Warren Buffett together launched The Giving Pledge campaign encouraging wealthy individuals and families to commit at least half their wealth for charitable purposes.