Amazon founder Jeff Bezos laid out a sweeping vision for America’s future on Wednesday, telling Fox News that the United States must beat China to the moon, that artificial intelligence (AI) could help families get by with less work and that data centers could one day operate in space.
In an exclusive interview with chief political anchor Bret Baier on “Special Report,” Bezos laid out his ambitions for Blue Origin and AI while pushing back against politicians who call billionaires bad.
“Success is not meanness,” Bezos said.
The interview took place at Blue Origin’s Cape Canaveral, Florida, factory as Fox News Channel marked its 30th anniversary.
Bezos said the United States must prevail in the race against China to land humans on the Moon, expressing confidence in the possibility of a US landing in 2028.
“We have to beat China to the Moon, and I believe we are going to beat China to the Moon,” he said.
He said NASA and Blue Origin are focused on this goal, with cargo deliveries needed to support a sustained human presence.
“We need to be able to regularly land cargo on the Moon to support a lunar base on the Moon,” Bezos said. “So there is a lot of work to do, but there is every reason to believe that we will be able to send humans to the Moon in 2028.”
Although Mars remains a destination, Bezos has opposed skipping the Moon, describing it as “a gift” because of its proximity to Earth and resources that could support future missions.
“We’ll go to Mars. We’ll do everything else. But first we have to go to the Moon,” he said.
Bezos said lunar soil could be used to make solar cells and oxygen produced on the Moon could be used as rocket propellant. The goal, he says, should be to establish a lasting presence.
“It’s not just going to be a mission and a go,” he said. “It will be a truly sustainable lunar base.”
Blue Origin is also preparing to return its New Glenn rocket to flight in December, Bezos said, after an explosion during an engine test in May that Baier detailed on the show.
Bezos praised the team for repairing the launch pad, saying the next flight will carry Blue Ring, a vehicle designed to carry payloads to different orbits and further into space.
Asked if he plans to increase one-platform launches from 12 to 50 per year, Bezos said Blue Origin is building three additional platforms. Its long-term ambitions are much greater.
“Our goal is to fly every day,” he said. “And then, once we fly every day, we want to fly every hour. And then, once we fly every hour, we want to fly every minute.”
This latter objective, he admitted, arouses skepticism from his own team.
“They think I’m crazy,” Bezos said. “But I’ve seen some crazy things happen before.”
Bezos said he personally invested $28 billion in Blue Origin and that the company recently raised $10 billion from outside investors for the first time. He also said an IPO could happen several years from now.
“I didn’t really want to bring in outside investors until I was sure it would be a good investment for them,” he said.
His vision for AI is equally ambitious, with Bezos predicting that productivity gains could allow some families to live on one income or support themselves with a shorter work week.
“Some people will also decide, you know what? I can support my family by working three days a week,” he said. “This is what productivity means in the economy.”
Bezos argued that these gains could create a labor shortage as Americans choose to work less.
“It will actually be difficult to hire people because the productivity of the economy will make it so that if people don’t want to work two jobs, they won’t have to,” he said.
Baier disputed that prediction, pointing out that Amazon had cut about 30,000 positions within the company since the end of last year.
Bezos said Amazon was in a “very unique position” after significantly increasing its workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He acknowledged public fears about AI’s impact on jobs, but said he disagreed with those predicting a more worrying outcome.
At Prometheus, where Bezos is co-founder and co-CEO, he said the goal is to develop an “artificial general engineer” that helps people turn ideas into physical products.
“We’re going to make the tools so easy to use that anyone can become an engineer,” he said.
Bezos said AI could drive double-digit productivity gains across the economy. When asked if the industry was in an investment bubble, he said it was “very hard to know,” but he argued that useful technologies can survive even when investors lose money.
“Inventions don’t disappear when the bubble bursts,” he said, pointing to life-saving drugs developed during the biotechnology boom and fiber-optic cables laid during the Internet boom.
Regarding government surveillance, Bezos has advocated a light-touch approach while the technology develops, with rules focused on harmful uses.
“In the beginning, when technologies are new, a light hand is appropriate,” he said.
“You don’t want to regulate knives. You want to regulate murder,” Bezos added, saying policymakers should target dangerous apps and bad actors rather than restricting the underlying technology.
Asked about concerns about data centers and electricity costs, Bezos brought up Blue Origin’s Project Sunrise. He said the company has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to launch more than 50,000 satellites to serve as orbital data centers.
“Yes, we can put data centers in space,” he said. “And there’s a good reason to do it.”
The conversation also turned to politics, with Baier wondering about independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ criticism of billionaires.
Bezos rejected the idea that building a successful business makes someone a bad guy, pointing to entrepreneurs who grow their businesses while creating jobs.
“There’s nothing wrong with making incredibly good chicken that people love,” he said, citing the success of Raising Cane’s. “And that doesn’t make him a bad person.”
When asked why socialism is gaining ground in some circles, Bezos acknowledged real affordability issues, particularly housing costs that force young people to struggle to live near their jobs.
“You can’t pretend there aren’t problems,” he said.
But he argued that politicians who blame landlords overlook the role of supply and demand. Government policies that subsidize demand while restricting construction drive up prices, Bezos said, citing Austin as an example of a city making it easier to build housing.
He urged voters to scrutinize politicians who spend their time shifting blame.
“If there’s a politician who picks out the bad guys and points the finger at them, that probably means they don’t have a solution,” Bezos said.
He added that leaders who behave like this in his own companies will not last.
“These people wouldn’t stay with our company for long.”
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