Ex-Google CEO Eric and wife Wendy Schmidt fund private space telescope bigger than Hubble ready in four years

Good news! Once more American philanthropy at its best!

"Today [1/7/2026] at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Schmidt Sciences, a foundation backed by billionaires Eric and Wendy Schmidt, announced one of the largest ever private investments in astronomy: funding for an orbiting observatory larger than NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, along with funds to build three novel ground-based observatories. The project aims to have all four components up and running by the end of the decade. ...

Schmidt Sciences declined to say how much it is investing but ... the space telescope, called Lazuli, alone will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. ..."

Ex–Google CEO funds private space telescope bigger than Hubble | Science | AAAS "Schmidt Sciences announces investments in orbiting observatory and three ground-based instruments"

The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System "Four novel observatories expanding access and enabling new ways to explore the cosmos"

The Argus Array, part of the new Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System, will record a movie of the visible sky with 1200 small telescopes.

Eric and Wendy Schmidt (Source)