Teen Prodigy Quits SpaceX for Finance Thrills
Kairan Quazi, a 16-year-old genius, leaves SpaceX after two years to join Citadel Securities. He wants faster challenges in trading. Read his story here.
Kairan Quazi is a smart kid. He joined SpaceX at 14. Now, at 16, he is leaving. He will work at Citadel Securities in New York. This is a big change for him. But he feels ready for it. And he thinks it will be exciting.
First, let’s talk about his past. Kairan grew up in the Bay Area. He skipped grades fast. So, he went to college at 9. Then, he interned at Intel at 10. He worked on speech tech there. Later, he got a degree from Santa Clara University in 2023. He was the youngest ever. After that, he started at SpaceX. He helped with Starlink satellites. His job was to make software for beams. This helps millions get internet.
But why leave now? Kairan said he wants new tests. SpaceX was great. However, finance moves quicker. At Citadel, he can see results in days. Not months like in space work. So, he picked it over AI jobs. He got offers from big tech too. Yet, he chose trading. Citadel is huge. It handles 35% of US retail stock trades. And it made nearly $10 billion last year. In the first part of 2025, it got $3.4 billion.
Kairan likes the fair play there. They did not care about his age. Instead, they saw his skills. His mom was in banking. So, he knows about money world from her. Now, he will build trading tools. He works with engineers and traders. This is at the mix of code and math problems.
He is happy about New York. His mom grew up there. And he has family close. Plus, he can walk to work in 10 minutes. No more mom driving him like at SpaceX. He still can’t drive yet.
This story shows young people can do big things. Kairan jumped from rockets to money games. Therefore, many watch what he does next. But he stays humble. He wants to learn more.
Here is a timeline of his life. It shows his fast path.
Timeline Graph Highlight
Year Event
2009 Born (age 0)
2018 Skipped to college (age 9)
2019 Intern at Intel (age 10)
2022 Intern at Blackbird.AI
2023 Grad from college, join SpaceX (age 14)
2025 Leave SpaceX, join Citadel (age 16)
(This graph is simple. It works on phones and computers. Imagine a line going up with dots for each year.)
Insert picture here from Google: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GyuB-VLWQAAaYgF.jpg (This shows Kairan smiling.)
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He told Business Insider, “Quant finance offers a pretty rare combination: the complexity and intellectual challenge that AI research also provides, but with a much faster pace.” So, that is why he moved.
Read the full chat at https://www.businessinsider.com/teen-prodigy-kairan-quazi-leaves-spacex-joins-citadel-securities-2025-8.
This move is big for finance. They need smart coders like him. And SpaceX loses a star. But he might come back one day. Who knows?
If you like stories like this, visit https://america112.com/ for daily updates.
Kairan is Bangladeshi-American. So, his story inspires kids everywhere. From Asia to Africa, North America to South America, even Europe, Australia, and Antarctica folks can read this. We target all ages. Kids dream big. Adults see change.
For more inspiring tales, go to https://america112.com/.
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