Mark Kelly founded spy balloon company with Chinese funding, now on Kamala's VP shortlist

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who has emerged as one of Kamala Harris' top VP pick contenders, previously launched a spy balloon company when he was an astronaut that was funded by the Chinese. Reports of him launching the company come in light of the Chinese spy balloon controversy that occurred in February 2023.  

Kelly became an astronaut before being elected as a US Senator, however, he also founded a company that specializes in spy balloons and was funded in part by venture capital in China with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to Fox News.

Kelly founded Word View in 2012, an Arizona-based company that had a vision of providing people with space tourism using balloons. Although the idea started out as a project for tourism, the company shifted in vision as technology changed.  

"As we matured our technology, we recognized an opportunity for immediate use cases for our technology through remote sensing services to defense, scientific and commercial customers," a spokesperson for World View told Fox News.  

"Today, our primary business remains providing remote sensing services to the US Department of Defense and her allies by way of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, as well as servicing scientific organizations like NASA, NOAA and others to better understand Earth from the unique atmospheric layer of the stratosphere." 

Shortly after its launch in 2012, it was reported that World View got some venture capital funding from Tencent in 2013 and again in 2016. Tencent is one of the largest corporations in China and was founded in 1998 by Zhang Zhidong, "Pony" Ma Huateng, Xu Chenye, Chen Yidan and Zeng Liqing. "Pony" was listed as the fourth richest man in China last year and is the CEO of Tencent.  

World View told the outlet that Tencent has "zero access, zero input, and zero control" over the spy balloon company. "The current leadership believed it was a mistake for the company to accept Chinese investment when it did," Word View said in a statement. However, the early investment from Tencent raises questions about Kelly being a candidate for VP, all things considered with the spy balloons that have recently been spotted in the US.  

Kelly left his position at World View in 2019, and his remaining financial interest in the company is held in a blind trust, the company spokesperson said. When he left the company to focus on his senate run, he gave up all access, interest, and control of the company.

Speaking with Arizona Republican operative Daniel Scarpinato, the New York Times wrote of Kelly as a potential VP pick, "Mr. Kelly has also not faced the harsh spotlight of a national campaign, and has potential political liabilities like a high-altitude surveillance balloon company he helped found with Chinese venture capital."