Jeff Bezos was undoubtedly the biggest star of VivaTech’s opening day.

The Amazon founder, one of the most anticipated speakers of the event, spent nearly 50 minutes on the main stage alongside Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp and former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino. Unsurprisingly, much of the discussion focused on space exploration, with artificial intelligence also featuring prominently.

As a direct competitor to Elon Musk and his company SpaceX, Bezos knows that expectations surrounding Blue Origin are high—especially after the explosion of the New Glenn rocket during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, Florida, just three weeks ago.

Nevertheless, he reaffirmed his long-standing ambition to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon.

“This time, we’re going to the Moon to stay, not just to visit,” he told an enthusiastic audience.

He then added:

“The Moon is the first step toward Mars.”

Moving Polluting Industries “Away from Earth”

One of the reasons Jeff Bezos is so interested in lunar exploration is its energy potential.

“There is frozen water in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles,” the American billionaire explained. “Through electrolysis, that water can be converted into liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.”

According to Bezos, future lunar missions could eventually rely on local resources rather than supplies transported from Earth.

“One day, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be able to use raw materials found on the Moon to refuel lunar landers.”

More broadly, Bezos sees space as a critical tool for helping decarbonize Earth.

“Our long-term vision—our dream—is that all polluting industries could eventually be located away from Earth,” he said.

In his view, environmental degradation is the one area where humanity is worse off today than it was centuries ago.

“The environment is the only thing that is worse today than it was 500 years ago.”

For Bezos, however, nearly every other aspect of human life has improved dramatically.

“Everything else is better today.”

That belief underpins his vision for the future:

“If space travel becomes sufficiently reliable and affordable, and if we can obtain raw materials from asteroids, near-Earth objects, and the Moon, then this garden planet can be restored to its pre-Industrial Revolution state.”

Dave Limp praised Bezos’ deep involvement in Blue Origin’s mission, joking:

“Jeff now knows more about rockets than he does about e-commerce.”

Blue Origin hopes to eventually reach approximately 100 space launches per year.

By advocating for moving polluting industrial activities into orbit, Bezos appeared to be alluding—at least indirectly—to “Terafab,” a major project reportedly being developed by Elon Musk.

Backed by planned investments exceeding $55 billion, the initiative aims to deploy data centers in space and manufacture chips for artificial intelligence and robotics. Ultimately, the project seeks to support between 100 and 200 gigawatts of computing capacity on Earth, as well as one terawatt in space.

AI as a Creativity Booster Rather Than a Job Destroyer

Beyond space, Bezos also addressed the growing impact of artificial intelligence.

He argued that AI represents an unprecedented opportunity to amplify human creativity and transform ideas into reality. In particular, he views it as a powerful catalyst for entrepreneurship.

“We are living in the most incredible moment,” he said.

“Every young person today should be excited to be alive right now, because there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur, never been a better time to start a company.”

The tech entrepreneur believes AI is expanding the range of what individuals can accomplish.

“We are limited not by our imagination, but by what we are able to execute in reality.”

Bezos also pushed back strongly against concerns that artificial intelligence could lead to widespread job losses.

“I know there are a lot of people who worry that AI will make humans redundant and unnecessary,” he said.

“I completely disagree with that view.”

The Amazon founder, who also created AI startup Prometheus, argued that AI is more likely to create demand for human talent than eliminate it.

“I think AI will actually create labor shortages, because it will enable people to identify even more problems that need solving and reveal an infinite number of new things to invent.”

He concluded:

“There will always be more opportunities for human creativity and innovation.”

Listening to Jeff Bezos, one gets the sense that the best is yet to come.

Let’s hope he’s right.