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Moonshots · 3 min · Jun 3, 2026

Larry Page bought Kurzweil's startup before it had built anything

Peter Diamandis recounts how Larry Page proposed buying Ray Kurzweil's startup during a meeting to discuss a $10 million investment. The exchange shows how a founder's vision can outweigh product progress in an acquisition.

Peter Diamandis, Host

Founder, XPRIZE

Co-founded Singularity University and founded Zero-G; co-wrote the books Abundance and Bold.

  • Salim Ismail, Host · Founder, Open ExO

    Co-wrote Exponential Organizations; was Singularity University's founding executive director; sold Ångströ to Google.

About this segment

Peter Diamandis recounts how Larry Page proposed buying Ray Kurzweil's startup during a meeting to discuss a $10 million investment. The exchange shows how a founder's vision can outweigh product progress in an acquisition.

From “Ray Kurzweil on Why We’re Living in the Singularity | EP #261”, Jun 3, 2026. Watch the full episode

“we're asking larry for a measly 10 million dollar investment”
Peter H. Diamandisat 34:22 · Moonshots34:22

Takeaways

  1. The meeting was set up to raise $10 million.
  2. Page proposed buying the company instead of investing.
  3. Kurzweil questioned how to value a company with no product.

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 11:56Exponential compute growth put AGI on a predictable timeline6:07
  2. 23:16AI's exponential pace is outstripping education and planning4:13
  3. 55:17AI is already shaping decisions and may soon blend into them7:32
  4. 7:30Kurzweil says robotics and physical reasoning still block AGI2:31

  5. 32:56Larry Page bought Kurzweil's startup before it had built anything2:46

  6. 39:28AI rights could start with limited economic personhood4:32Up next
  7. 35:21Kurzweil expects a broader safety net after the singularity2:28
  8. 1:07:18Local communities could use technology to become self-sufficient2:50

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 33:08

    first half of your life sort of running your own show and you just spent the past couple of decades since we've known into a decade working inside a big company how has that changed you how's it was it did you enjoy Google I mean It's a very big it's a very unique company. And it's really creating what we're all talking about here. When I got there, we actually were involved in changing Google to be much more oriented, which it has become.

  2. 33:53

    Do you mind if I tell the story of how you ended up at Google? Yeah. So Ray had written a book called How to Create a Mind and then started a company based on the concepts behind it. What was the company's name? Patterns, Inc., right? Patterns, yeah. And invited me to come as a board member, and so I joined as a founding board member, and we were setting out to raise money. Ray had not yet met Larry Page, and I knew Larry.

  3. 34:20

    He was on my board at the XPRIZE and become a friend. and a benefactor and i said let's go pitch larry so i set up the meeting and we walk into a conference room at google and ray starts presenting patterns inc uh and you know we're asking larry for a measly 10 million dollar investment and uh we're fine that was lunch and uh and uh halfway through I think roughly Larry says you know you could build your vision for the business much better inside Google than Outside Google, what if I just buy you?

  4. 35:03

    I think it was that blunt, I mean, like 30 minutes into the conversation. Do you remember what you said to him at that point? And it was like, We haven't really done anything yet, so how would you value it? Yes, that's exactly it. And his response was, we can value anything. And that's how you got your first job. That's right. He bought the company, which had value. even though he hadn't done anything.