The impressive 18 year old who is taking on Silicon Valley and setting high bars for businessmen to contribute more to society and philanthropy.
Jivteshwar Khaira, born 22 December 2003, is a self taught engineer and Philanthropist. Even though he is young he has already accomplished impressive tasks and is currently on track to achieve even more!
He is currently working on getting his aircraft company that is building a prototype for an electric aircraft off the ground. He has built small scale models that work but is trying to get the funding and the engineering down to make a full passenger size electric plane a reality. He said that while he is currently working on an electric aircraft he believes that hydrogen based fuel will become the standard as they are quick to refuel instead of the long charge times of batteries. At first he used to believe that with advancements in supercapacitors electric planes could be feasible but now he says he is going to build prototypes of hydrogen based aircrafts as well as focusing on his original dream of electric aircrafts.
He also maintains a strong front on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, being friendly with all the major players in both parts of the world. He likes to advise companies on their financing and raising money. In fact, When the Canadian finance wunderkind was just a teenager, he developed a quantitative, long-short equity strategy that runs on an automated basis on his computer. Investing his and his parents’ money, he saw returns that would make any amateur day trader jealous. On average the algorithm returned a 45% CAGR. While he has obviously cracked the code on the quantitative side he also has a place in his heart for analytical investing. “ Nothing can beat good old fashion analysis”, he said when asked about why he still focuses on “older” techniques.
When asked what his way of doing business was, he replied with a rather beautiful passage, “We only want to work with parties that align with our values, it doesn’t matter who you are, everyone is treated the same. All of our suppliers go through strict vetting processes, same as anyone who wants to partner with us or even invest in us. We’re here to drive change, make change, and cement change for the betterment of humanity and of course all life on earth, including our environment.”
Perhaps, this is why he says his true passion is philanthropy. Having helped fund and build about 18 schools in Bali, Indonesia, Ethiopia and Chad, he says that funding education is the best return on investment we as a species can see.
He tries his best to not only focus on education, he has also helped set up 22 free vaccine clinics and 18 free covid testing in north India, for which he was given a commendation by the governor of Punjab. He also helped fund some nonprofits in Africa so that they could import covid vaccines and set up free vaccination clinics in low income neighborhoods. We calculate that his contributions have led to about 10,000 people getting vaccinated and about 20,000 free tests being administered.
When we asked why he started philanthropy he said, “I’ve always said to those that ask me, money doesn’t concern me, as long as there’s food on the table and I’m able to work on what I want, I’m happy. People who only focus on material and monetary gain, aren’t my type of people. It’s such a shallow way to live life. It’s fine to celebrate successes and reward yourself from time to time but when your whole reality is driven by money, you have sold your soul. I’ve seen first hand what this chasing of avarice does to people, and it’s disgusting and wrong.” He also listed him being diagnosed with depression as a big reason why he started. “ I figured that helping others might be a good serotonin boost”, he joked.
We are honoured to have gotten the opportunity to report on this young leader and we are very confident that he has great things in his future.
