Before becoming a senator, Mark Kelly was not only an astronaut, but he also co-founded a company that specializes in spy balloons, which was funded, in part, by a venture capitalist in China with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Kelly, who is reportedly on a short list of running mate contenders under consideration by Vice President Kamala Harris, co-founded Tucson, Arizona-based World View in 2012 with a vision to provide space tourism using stratospheric balloons.
While Kelly’s company started out with a focus on space tourism via balloons, the vision evolved with the maturing of the company’s technology.
Axios reported that shortly after World View was started, it received venture capital from Tencent in 2013, then again in 2016.
Tencent is one of China's largest corporations, and it was founded in 1998 by "Pony" Ma Huateng, Zhang Zhidong, Xu Chenye, Chen Yidan and Zeng Liqing. Last year, "Pony" Ma Huateng was listed by Forbes as the fourth-richest man in China with a net worth of $32.1 billion. Ma is also the CEO of Tencent.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that Tencent collected a trove of data over the years from its mobile app WeChat, the predominant social-media platform in China. The data was collected through its processing of the chat conversations and financial transactions of its over one billion monthly active users, most of them in China. That has made the company’s platform WeChat a powerful surveillance tool for the Chinese government, which regulates Tencent and regularly has it suppress dissenting views.
With Tencent’s ties to the Chinese government, World View stated Saturday that Tencent has "zero access, zero input and zero control" over the company.
Kelly stepped away from his position at World View in 2019 to prepare for his U.S. Senate run.
The company spokesperson said the remaining financial interest Kelly has in World View is secured in a blind trust,
Kelly, who is reportedly on a short list of running mate contenders under consideration by Vice President Kamala Harris, co-founded Tucson, Arizona-based World View in 2012 with a vision to provide space tourism using stratospheric balloons.
While Kelly’s company started out with a focus on space tourism via balloons, the vision evolved with the maturing of the company’s technology.
Axios reported that shortly after World View was started, it received venture capital from Tencent in 2013, then again in 2016.
Tencent is one of China's largest corporations, and it was founded in 1998 by "Pony" Ma Huateng, Zhang Zhidong, Xu Chenye, Chen Yidan and Zeng Liqing. Last year, "Pony" Ma Huateng was listed by Forbes as the fourth-richest man in China with a net worth of $32.1 billion. Ma is also the CEO of Tencent.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that Tencent collected a trove of data over the years from its mobile app WeChat, the predominant social-media platform in China. The data was collected through its processing of the chat conversations and financial transactions of its over one billion monthly active users, most of them in China. That has made the company’s platform WeChat a powerful surveillance tool for the Chinese government, which regulates Tencent and regularly has it suppress dissenting views.
With Tencent’s ties to the Chinese government, World View stated Saturday that Tencent has "zero access, zero input and zero control" over the company.
Kelly stepped away from his position at World View in 2019 to prepare for his U.S. Senate run.
The company spokesperson said the remaining financial interest Kelly has in World View is secured in a blind trust,
