NEVERDIE Studios

MOONSHOTS Live 2026 — interview with Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs. Source: the video’s automatic English captions; speaker labels and punctuation have been added for readability. Automatic captions may contain errors. Statements reflect the interview at the time of recording.

00:00 · Host
A dream job. I'm going to be interviewing people like Neil deGrasse Tyson, [name unclear in automatic captions], some of my personal heroes. And for everybody watching this, you're going to get to see that. I am so excited. There's also 1,200 excited attendees here today at Moonshots Live. You're going to hear live pitches from the finalists of the two competitions being decided today. We've got the Future Vision XPRIZE and the Build with Gemini XPRIZE. Future Vision XPRIZE is all about funding a movie, and the Build with Gemini XPRIZE is about a startup. Millions of dollars in prizes are going to be awarded. You're going to hear live conversations with Peter Diamandis, the Moonshots mates, and some special guests. Vote and get your chance to have your actual votes in the hands of the judges as well, that will be voting later today, because the judges will be deliberating and making their final decisions on the big prizes. I'll also be pulling in some high-profile guests, like I talked about a second ago, in the tech and AI space to discuss today and get their responses on a few of my key questions. I think we're actually getting started with an interview here in a moment. If everybody's ready. Yeah, let's do it.

01:04 · Host
We're going to bring our first guest. I'm thrilled. Today is all about meeting heroes. Let's do this. We've got Neverdie, so if he's ready, you can jump in right here. How's it going?

01:15 · Greeting exchange
It's great to meet you. I wish I could-- Yeah, I'll hold the mic. We'll shake hands like this. I've got a card in my hand. It's a little awkward, but that's okay. It's great to meet you.

01:24 · Host
I've heard a lot about you. You've been able to make a lot of money inside of video games. We're actually meeting the guy who coined the term metaverse later.

01:30 · NEVERDIE
Okay, great. I'll meet him too.

01:32 · Host
Yeah. So that's going to be cool. Obviously, you're very involved in that. For anyone who doesn't know who you are, can you give them a little synopsis of what you've done? Who is Neverdie?

01:43 · NEVERDIE
Okay. Well, Neverdie, basically very early on, I'm an actor and a filmmaker. I came to Hollywood to make indie movies. But I was always broke, right? Struggling writing my screenplays. I started playing games on my Mac, MMOs, earliest MMOs, and realized, wow, I'm playing games that involve collecting money to buy items and build my skills as an avatar. This could all be real money, this Internet that's coming along. And basically, I created Neverdie. I started writing about it, and then I found Entropia Universe, which is a Swedish MMO with a real cash economy, and successfully managed to make a living inside the metaverse and build a virtual nightclub and buy an asteroid and get my kids through school and various things.

02:38 · Host
Unbelievable. So I know you've been able to make a lot of money, make a living inside of video games, but I'm guessing that video game isn't Fortnite or something, or Geometry Dash. So for people listening who maybe have no idea about this whole world and what you do, what are these video games that you're able to actually make money in?

02:58 · NEVERDIE
Okay. This is called Entropia Universe, and it's a massive multiplayer online world with a real cash economy that is now 25 years in, and now it's being driven by AI. And we're almost at the point where it's going to be fully recursive. And what I've done is I've built a public transport teleportation company inside the universe that offers real jobs, paying jobs, like $18 a month, to anybody that starts to play. And as the universe scales, potentially into the true metaverse-

03:38 · Host
Uh-huh

03:38 · NEVERDIE
... could support potentially a billion jobs. And that's only possible now because of AI. But we've spent 20 years building it-

03:49 · Host
Yeah

03:49 · NEVERDIE
... testing it, proving it, and players have been in there for 20 years building skills and value. So it's strange because it's a niche world, because most people just want to play games and spend money and-

04:05 · Host
Right

04:05 · NEVERDIE
... but we're at a point now where the world is changing. AI, robotics, they're going to take away all the menial labor jobs, and humans are going to have to really monetize their passions. And one of the greatest, most common passions in the world today is gaming. So what a great way to continue to have purpose and earn extra money and counterbalance the fact that there will be less menial labor job opportunities in the world.

04:41 · Host
Yeah. That is incredible. I wish that you could meet my grandparents, because they have a lot-- You know what I mean? I was trying to explain to them how AI works and how the metaverse works, and it's like, meeting someone like you who's actually able to make a living off of that is incredible. So Jon, Neverdie-

04:57 · NEVERDIE
Thank you very much

04:57 · Host
... it was great to meet you.

04:58 · NEVERDIE
Thank you. Thank you.

04:59 · Host
I think we're going to move on to another interview now. So many cool people here today. Let's go on to... Oh, we're actually going to talk a little bit about the Gemini XPRIZE.