Meet Kairan Quazi: The 16-year-old child prodigy who left Elon Musk's SpaceX for fintech

Time of India

13 hours ago

Source: USA Today
At an age when most teens are busy with getting good high school results, a 16-year-old boy has achieved a milestone that most professionals spend decades chasing. With a mind far beyond his years and a relentless drive that refuses to be boxed in by age, he's caught the world's attention with his exceptional talent.
Who is Kairan Quasi, and what did he achieve exceptionally?
Kairan Quasi is a 16-year-old boy who grew up in a family with a tech and finance background. His mom, Jullia Quazi, works at Wall Street, and his dad, Mustahid Quazi, is a chemical engineer. As an American-Bangladeshi, Kairan was raised with a mix of cultures and high academic standards, which ignited his early interest in math, computer science, and technology.
While most kids were still in middle school, Kairan was already taking college classes.
He earned an Associate of Science degree in Mathematics from Las Positas College at just 11 years of age, showing not just intelligence, but also a level of focus and problem-solving skills far beyond his age.
He joined
SpaceX
at a tender age!
Kairan Quazi became the youngest graduate in Santa Clara University's 170-year history, earning his degree in computer science and engineering at just 14. Soon after, he was recruited by SpaceX to work on the Starlink project and was in the headlines for being the company's youngest engineer.
For two years, Quazi contributed to production-critical systems that worked on how Starlink satellites target their beams, ensuring fast and reliable satellite internet, which is a significant responsibility despite his young age.
Quasi is now taking up new challenges
In 2025, Kairan decided to take another huge step in his career by shifting to the financial technology sector from aerospace engineering. He is now leaving SpaceX to join Citadel Securities in New York City as a quantitative developer.
He explained to Business Insider, 'After two years at SpaceX, I felt ready to take on new challenges and expand my skill set into a different high‑performance environment.' He found Citadel appealing for its 'ambitious culture' and access to a 'completely new domain'.
Kairan Quazi turned down offers from AI labs and big tech companies to go into finance, which might seem surprising at first. But for him, the choice made perfect sense.
As 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 … I'll be able to see measurable impact in days, not months or years like many research environments.
'
Now, at Citadel Securities, which is one of the top high-speed trading firms in the world, handling around 35% of US retail stock trades, he'll be helping improve the systems that help in global trading.
Kairan Quasi's previous experiences
Kairan Quazi grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. He interned at Intel Labs at the age of 10, before completing his college education, and later worked at Blackbird.AI in 2022. A significant part of his interest in finance also stemmed from his mother, who works as an investment banker in mergers and acquisitions. That blend of tech know-how and financial understanding helped shape the path he's on today, according to Wikipedia.
Twitter previously banned his account
Beyond his resume, Quazi has faced age-related biases. In 2023, LinkedIn banned his account for being underage, which he called 'illogical, primitive nonsense,' questioning how one could be qualified to work at SpaceX but not to access a professional networking platform.