We are living in a world of rapidly accelerating technologies, where artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, digitalization, biotechnology, genomics, nanotechnology, and other innovative branches have become the new normal.

Peter H. Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil, the famous futuristic and data-driven duo, have shown the world a whole other side of technology as a whole, and have dedicated most of their lives to creating intelligent solutions for every challenge imposed both as a team and individually.

With the foundation of their remarkable platform, Singularity University, Peter and Ray wanted to afford every individual and organization worldwide to have the opportunity to learn, create, and connect to innovative technologies which offer breakthrough solutions, fit for startups, courses, educational programs, and more.

But, before they could accomplish everything they have done to this day, let alone introduce Singularity to the world, Peter and Ray had a long way to go to the top.

Two Great Minds

Ray was born in 1948, in the borough of Queens. His parents, both Austrian Jews, emigrated to America with a goal to secure a better tomorrow for their family. Ray’s father worked as a professional pianist, whilst his mother was a visual artist.

When Ray was just five, he knew what an inventor was and that it was his calling.

In his youth, Ray mostly occupied himself by building robotic games and had an inventory of parts from different construction toys and electronic gadgets. Reading science fiction literature whenever he could, Ray was inspired to create innovative and futuristic things for himself - and others. He began by attending Martin Van Buren High School, and he later graduated from MIT, from where he holds a B.S in computer science.

Peter, on the other hand, is a Greek American born in the Bronx in 1961, to Greek parents - both immigrants and medical workers, who moved from Greece to America to find their happily ever after.

He was very young when he discovered his inclination towards the universe. At eight years of age, Space exploration was what kept Peter busy whilst his favorite topic of discussion was everything he had learned in the meantime.

Peter finished high school at Great Neck North in 1979, and after graduating he went to Hamilton College, where he only stayed a year before enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, intending to study physics and biology. In 1983 Peter graduated in molecular genetics and holds a B.S from MIT in the field.

Later on, Peter went to Harvard Medical School to get a medical degree but put his M.D on hold and returned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to get a master’s degree in astronautics and aeronautics first. Post completion, Peter retrieved to Harvard and ultimately obtained a medical degree in 1989.

During his education, Peter was already showing a capacity in entrepreneurship, and even founded several startups, like Space Generation Foundation and International Micro Space, a microsatellite company where he took the director's role.

Counting Experiences

Over the years, Peter and Ray were driven and inspired by the thought of building and creating new and unconventional projects that were supposed to tackle and challenge the problems most people thought were solutionless. As an entrepreneur, Peter was creating various unique projects and kicked off over 20 companies, determined to revolutionize education and investigate space, all the while investing more money into research on exponential technologies.

Despite other significant startups and companies, Peter’s most valuable and meaningful experience is with the Xprize Foundation. Peter is the founder and the executive chairman of the company, which is one of the world’s leaders operating and designing incentive platforms that encourage the development of technology.

At the same time, Ray has a rich palette of inventions, most of which he had been creating over the years. Those innovative projects affected humanity in their own way and encouraged the expansion of essential technological tools and methods. Ray founded Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc which is the first optical character recognition system. This invention was something atypical for the time, but Ray found a way for this computer program to recognize text written in normal font.

Even more impactful was the development of new pattern-recognition software technology, or the renowned text-to-speech converter. With all accomplishments in one place, Ray’s mission revolved around helping individuals suffering from dyslexia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and even blindness.

The world of technology and innovations has brought Peter and Ray together to become even closer friends. Not just that but they both shared the same futuristic look of how artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other industries will affect humanity and impact technology.

After countless summits and seminars spent together, as well as endless conversations about their experiences with the upcoming technological revolution and the way it would impact society, Peter and Ray got an idea.

That idea was later named Singularity.

The Futuristic Platform

Founded in 2008, Singularity University was created to find a solution for every problem and turn it into an opportunity. The platform believes that all global brands can and should provoke meaningful changes in humanity, thus transforming society into a more beloved place for everyone to be.

Singularity is having all necessary empowerment: expert teachers, solid capital, visionaries, and the most sophisticated technology society could benefit from. The platform develops new and more different approaches to thinking, acting, and building unique innovations which solve many essential issues people deal with.

Regardless of the name, the company is not having any qualifications to provide University criteria, and it’s unaccredited for it. The company is a business incubator to produce educational programs and consultancy services for organizations and individuals, thus empowering all to connect, learn, and come up with remarkable solutions using the most futuristic technologies of today.

Peter and Ray’s Singularity is an exception from its competitors and represents one of the few platforms standing behind the idea of startups promoting scientific offerings, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and more. The future purpose of the company is to appeal to all generations and interact with important names who are already making an impact on our lives in their given industry.

Empowering individuals, leaders, entrepreneurs, and organizations with a new toolset that helps shape humanity’s future is what Singularity does best, or better yet, what Peter and Ray do with it the best.

Singularity in a Nutshell

In the beginning, Singularity was a non-profit platform, offering a summer program of 10 weeks named Graduate Studies Program, but ever since 2012, the pay-to-play service was introduced.

The company, which in 2013 was still called the Singularity Education Group, changed it to Singularity University. Singularity used to be headquartered in the NASA Research Park for years, but in 2019, they changed the location to Santa Clara.

Over the years, the business has raised a total of $32 million over four rounds of funding and has ten investors, the most recent of which are TAL Education Group and PeopleFund. On top of it all, the company has a few leading investors, including WestRiver Group and Boeing HorizonX Ventures.

When creating Singularity, Peter and Ray made enormous advances with their knowledge, experience, adherence, and persistence. They now teach from the shadows and are constantly working on projects that ensure a better future for us all!