Report: 16 of the World’s Richest People Investing in Space Exploration

16 of the world’s richest billionaires have investments in space exploration, according to a new report from Bloomberg Technology.

The list includes obvious entries, such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk (who is also the CEO of SpaceX), Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos (who invests in aerospace manufacturer and space service company Blue Origin), and Virgin Founder Richard Branson (who owns Virgin Galactic), but also features 13 others from among the wealthiest people in the world.

Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates invests in satellite communications company Kymeta, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg invests in the Search for Extraterrestrial Information (SETI) project, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff invests in agriculture technology company Taranis.

Google’s Eric Schmidt and Larry Page invest in asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, while Google’s Sergey Brin has investments in Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The list also includes Li Ka-Shing (Windward), Ma Huateng (Moon Express), Sheldon Adelson (SpaceIL), Ricardo Salinas (OneWeb), Lynn Schusterman (SpaceIL), and Yuri Milner (Planet).

“All told, they have a net worth of $513 billion. Good thing, because space ventures such as rocket launches can involve stratospheric expenses,” reported Bloomberg Technology. “The last decade has seen a boom in space startups, and not only by billionaires. They were spurred in part by Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Its first commercial launch in 2009 encouraged an ecosystem of space companies that were previously hindered by the cost of getting to orbit.”