Elon Musk's SpaceX company has hired 14-year-old Kairan Quazi. The teenager barely graduated from Santa Clara University in California, where he achieved a bachelor's degree.
At SpaceX, Quasi will be part of the software development team for the Starlink satellite internet system.
Prior to this, the teenager had already completed an internship at Intel, where he was engaged in AI research. And in 2022, he trained at Blackbird.AI, which works in the field of cybersecurity.
According to the San Francisco television station KGO, Quazi's family discovered his superior IQ when he began speaking in complete phrases at the age of two. According to the Los Angeles Times, he enjoyed listening to National Public Radio in kindergarten and tell his teachers and fellow students about various stories he listened to.
According to BrainGain Magazine, Quazi completed tests in third grade (the UK equivalent of year four) that revealed his IQ was in the 99.9th percentile of the entirety of the population.
As reported by KGO, Quazi were feeling unchallenged by his schoolwork, and his instructors, physician, and parents agreed that "mainstream education wasn't the right path" for his rapid development.
At the age of nine he realized that he was ahead of the school curriculum, and enrolled in the Community College of California. He was enrolled at Santa Clara University at the age of 11. Quazi became the youngest graduate in the history of the university, which was founded in 1851.
Quazi's story went viral after California media outlets published on his graduation from Santa Clara University on June 17, 2023, when undergraduates will be receiving their degrees from SCU. This is SCU's 172 graduation ceremony.
"My journey wouldn't have been possible if not for influential people and positions of power - again looking beyond my age but I would say my mom. She's been my rock through this entire journey and I know it's been very difficult on her as well. Again, now she's uprooting her life to move me to Washington. I'm eternally grateful for her," Quazi said.
Starlink assigned him an official start date of July. He and his mother had planned to relocate from their Santa Clara apartment to a location in Redmond, Washington, closer to his employment at Starlink.