NVIDIA and YC have invested in a company to build a hotel on the moon by 2032 In 1980, Dennis Hope, an unemployed used car salesman from California, walked into the San Francisco government office and claimed that he wanted to "claim" ownership of the entire moon. The staff thinks this person is sick. But after flipping through the legal provisions, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty only prohibits states from possessing the moon, not individuals. Hope took advantage of this loophole and wrote a letter to the United Nations saying that the moon was mine, but the UN did not respond. So Hope registered a company called 'Lunar Embassy' and began selling lunar land. An acre costs $20 and comes with a gold-plated land deed and satellite photo. 45 years have passed, and Hope has sold 600 million acres of lunar land, with clients including well-known actors such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and reportedly three former US presidents. How much money did you earn? 12 million US dollars. This business is classified by China as "profiteering and madness" and is strictly prohibited. But in the United States, Hope remains at large and continues to sell his land deeds. Now, a 22-year-old young man says: Selling land is too low, I want to open a hotel on the moon. This company is called GRAmeriapace, full name Galactic Resource Utilization, and just opened bookings for future hotel rooms last week. Founder @ skyler_chan_, with dual degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, graduated in May last year, one year earlier than the normal academic program. We checked our resume and it was indeed very beautiful: I obtained my Air Force pilot license at the age of 16, wrote vehicle software at Tesla, made a NASA funded 3D printer and sent it into space. The company has entered @ ycombinator, the most famous startup incubator in Silicon Valley; Airbnb, Stripe, and Dropbox all originated from there. Behind it are Nvidia's support plan, as well as investors from Musk's SpaceX and military unicorn Anduril. Sounds impressive, right? The YC file clearly states: 2 full-time employees. Two people aim to open a hotel on the moon within six years. Although I couldn't afford to live there, out of curiosity, I researched their fee structure. The application fee is $1000 and non refundable. If selected, a deposit of $250000 or $1 million is required, and the refund can be made within 30 days after the hotel is built. The final housing price may exceed 10 million US dollars. The schedule is as follows: Screening applications in 2026, holding a private auction in 2027, conducting the first lunar test in 2029, deploying hotel cabins in 2031, and opening for business in 2032. This pattern reminds me of Virgin Galactic. Richard Branson, a wealthy British businessman, runs a space tourism company. Branson is the owner of Virgin Group, which does everything from aviation, music, to cola. In 2005, he announced his intention to take ordinary people into space and began collecting a deposit of $200000 per person. At that time, it was said that it made its maiden flight in 2007. Then came 2008, 2009, 2010 In 2011, a 75 year old man named Alan Walton couldn't wait any longer and demanded a refund. He said he had already climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, been to the North Pole, jumped an umbrella on Mount Everest, and was only short of space, but he was getting old and couldn't wait any longer. In 2014, Virgin Galactic's spacecraft crashed during testing, resulting in the death of one pilot. A group of customers requested a refund and received it. In 2021, Branson finally went into space on his own. The customers breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that it was finally their turn. In 2022, an 84 year old Bulgarian elderly man named Chapadjiev refunded the money. He paid the money in 2007 and waited for 15 years, being told every year to 'fly next year'. He said that his Bulgarian relatives kept asking him when he would ascend to heaven, but he couldn't answer. Virgin Galactic's ticket price has now increased to $450000, with a deposit of $150000, of which $25000 is non refundable. The commercial flight did start flying, but it only took a few minutes to shake off at the edge of space before returning. GRAmeriapace aims to send you to the moon to live for a few days. The difficulty is several orders of magnitude lower. And Virgin Galactic spent 20 years, burned billions of dollars, and died people to get to where it is today. GRAmeriapace only has 2 full-time employees, leaving themselves 6 years. However, I don't think this is a scam. The founder of GRU, the 22-year-old Berkeley graduate, stated in the white paper that he knew it was a big gamble, he didn't hide it, and he was proud of it. He said that if successful, it would be the most influential event in human history. This may sound crazy, but the logic is self consistent. The Trump administration is planning to establish a lunar base, and Jared Isaacman, the new NASA director and billionaire who has self funded space travel, has stated that a "preliminary facility" will be built by 2030. Chan is betting that the government doesn't have time to develop from scratch and must rely on commercial companies. He wants to be the dependent person. The white paper of this project quotes a sentence: If the United States must build a lunar base within ten years, there will be no time to invent those peculiar government equipment from scratch So this 1 million deposit is not for a hotel room. I bought a track ticket and bet on the direction of US space policy. Finally, let's talk about one detail. The company is called GRU, and the white paper ends with: "It's time to steam the Moon It's time to steal the moon. Gru in 'Despicable Me' also wants to steal the moon. At the end of the movie, he didn't steal it, but adopted three orphans and became a good father. I don't know if Skyler Chan has watched that movie. I don't know if in 6 years, those who paid the deposit will stay at the Moon Hotel or, like 84 year old Chapadjiev, will ultimately choose a refund. Anyway, the deposit can be refunded after 30 days. The moon is still there and won't run.