Peter Diamandis

Diamandis was born in the Bronx, New York City, to Greek immigrants. At age 12, Diamandis won first place in a rocket design competition.

After graduating from Great Neck North High School in 1979, Diamandis attended Hamilton College for his first year, then transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study biology and physics. During his second year at MIT in 1980, he cofounded Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.

Diamandis graduated from MIT in 1983 and entered Harvard Medical School to pursue his MD through the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. During his second year of medical school, he cofounded the Space Generation Foundation to promote projects and programs that would help the "Space Generation"—all those born since the flight of Sputnik—get off the planet.

In 1986, Diamandis put his medical degree on hold and returned to MIT to pursue a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics, conducting research at NASA Johnson Space Center, the MIT Man Vehicle Laboratory and MIT's Whitehead Biomedical Institute. After completing his M.S. at MIT, Diamandis returned to Harvard to complete his M.D.

During his last year of medical school in 1989, Diamandis acted as managing director of the International Space University and CEO of International Micro Space, a microsatellite launch company.

Diamandis has founded over 25 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital, and education.

International MicroSpace, Inc.

Diamandis cofounded Microsat Launch Systems, later renamed International MicroSpace Inc., in 1989 during his fourth year of medical school and served as the company's CEO. IMI designed a small launcher called Orbital Express (later renamed "ORBEX") for taking 100-kg payloads to low-Earth orbit, collaborating with Bristol Aerospace for the manufacture. The company won a $100 million SDIO contract for one launch plus nine options and was sold to CTA Inc of Rockville, MD in 1993 for $250,000. Diamandis joined CTA for one year as VP of Commercial Space Programs post-acquisition. The ORBEX contract was eventually canceled "because of a glut of small launchers," and CTA put the project on hold and eventually canceled the project.

Constellation Communications and Angel Technologies Corporation

In 1991, Diamandis founded Constellation Communications, Inc., one of five low-Earth orbit satellite constellations for voice telephony. The company planned to deploy an equatorial ring of 10 satellites to provide communications primarily to Brazil and Indonesia. Diamandis remained director until 1993, when it was acquired by Angel Technology. Between 1995 and 1999, Diamandis was the president of Angel Technologies Corporation, a commercial communications company that intended to develop wireless broadband communications networks based on a high-altitude aircraft.

Diamandis proposed to his girlfriend Kristen Hladecek on a Zero Gravity Corporation spaceflight in 2004. They have twin sons, born c. 2012.

XPRIZE Foundation

In 1994, Diamandis founded the XPRIZE Foundation after the failure of International MicroSpace, Inc and reading Charles Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis. He serves as chairman and CEO of the foundation. XPRIZE was created to fund and operate a $10 million incentive competition intended to inspire a new generation of private passenger-carrying spaceships. The prize was announced on May 18, 1996, in St. Louis, without any purse money or teams. The prize was ultimately funded through an insurance policy underwritten by the Anousheh and Hamid Ansari Family and renamed the Ansari XPRIZE in their honor.

The $10 million competition attracted 26 teams from seven countries as teams and was won on October 4, 2004, by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a team run by the aviation designer Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. The winning vehicle, SpaceShipOne, was piloted to space twice within two weeks to win the competition. The first flight was made on September 29, 2004, piloted by Mike Melvill, and the winning, second flight was made on October 4, 2004, by pilot Brian Binnie. SpaceShipOne was the world's first non-government piloted spacecraft and hangs in the National Air and Space Museum adjacent to the Spirit of St. Louis aircraft.

In January 2005, the XPRIZE Foundation Board of Trustees expanded the focus of the XPRIZE to address four different group areas: Exploration (oceans and space), Life Sciences, Energy and Environment, and Education and Global Development.

Since inception, the foundation has launched the $10M Ansari XPRIZE (awarded), the $10M Automotive XPRIZE (awarded), the $10M Archon XPRIZE (in progress), the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE (in progress), the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, the $2M Lunar Lander Challenge (awarded), the $1.4M Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge (awarded), the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE, and the $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan targeting aspects of the biology of aging. In May 2012, the Robin Hood Foundation announced its plans to partner with the XPRIZE Foundation for several New York-based challenges targeted at eradicating poverty.

The $101 million XPRIZE Healthspan was launched in November 2023. To win the competition, a team must demonstrate a therapeutic delivered in under 1 year that is capable of restoring muscle, immune, and cognitive functioning for people aged 65 to 80 by a minimum of 10 years, with a goal of 20 years.

The XPRIZE Foundation has a staff of approximately 50 and is headquartered in Culver City, California. Its board of trustees includes Larry Page, Elon Musk, James Cameron, Dean Kamen, Ratan Tata, Ray Kurzweil, Jim Gianopulos, Naveen Jain, Arianna Huffington, Will Wright, and Craig Venter.

The 2015 documentary Visioneer: The Peter Diamandis Story tells the story of the creation of XPRIZE.

In 2016, Julian Guthrie authored the book How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight, detailing the story behind the XPRIZE.