The Enhanced Games, a newly established sports event that openly permits the use of performance-enhancing substances, appears at first glance to be a spectacle tailored for the tech-driven, hyper-competitive age: Olympic-level athletes using steroids, vying for million-dollar prizes in Las Vegas. Yet, co-founder Aron D’Souza envisions a highly profitable telehealth venture, targeting governments grappling with aging societies.
Set to debut in May 2026 with financial support from Peter Thiel, the Games are offering $1 million rewards for athletes who break world records. Notable former Olympians, including sprinter Fred Kerley and swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev, have already committed to participate. The ambition goes beyond shattering records in front of enthusiastic crowds; D’Souza aims to create a powerful promotional platform for the longevity sector, which he predicts will become a multi-trillion-dollar industry.
“We leverage sports marketing to promote a human enhancement solution,” D’Souza explained on a recent episode of Equity. “It’s a telehealth platform similar to Hims or Roman, but we’ll have proof that the world’s top athletes follow our protocols.”
The business approach borrows from Red Bull’s playbook—using extreme sports as a vehicle for product promotion—but instead of selling energy drinks, the offering is testosterone, growth hormone, or any substance that can help people stay competitive with technology and productive well into old age.
Although the Games have sparked controversy, D’Souza is confident that public discomfort will diminish once spectators witness athletes in their 30s and 40s breaking world records. Alongside billionaire co-founder Christian Angermayer, he has secured tens of millions in funding based on this premise and recruited executives from organizations like the U.S. Olympic Committee, Red Bull, and FIFA to pursue what he describes as a mission to “upgrade all of humanity.”
“I’m convinced that when Fred [Kerley] surpasses [Usain Bolt’s] 100-meter world record in Vegas next year, it will mark a turning point, demonstrating that enhanced individuals outperform ordinary ones,” he stated.
To put it differently: just as Sputnik initiated the space era and ChatGPT ignited the AI revolution, D’Souza believes a record-breaking, enhanced sprint could usher in the age of human augmentation—and attract a surge of investment.
In 2024, longevity-focused startups attracted $8.5 billion as the pursuit of longer lifespans shifted from a niche interest to a mainstream investment strategy. The movement appeals to everyone from billionaires backing anti-aging science to ordinary Americans seeking direct-to-consumer health solutions when traditional healthcare falls short.
Aron D’Souza, co-founder and president of the enhanced games Image Credits:The Enhanced Games However, D’Souza argues that longevity is no longer a luxury, but a necessity as populations age and technology advances.
Across the globe, declining birth rates are steering major economies toward potential population decline. A recent McKinsey report revealed that fertility rates are dropping below replacement levels almost everywhere except sub-Saharan Africa. Many nations have turned to immigration to counteract aging demographics, as immigrants typically arrive younger, fill essential workforce gaps, and often have higher birth rates themselves.
Yet, large-scale migration has sparked political resistance in both Europe and the U.S., where right-wing groups have gained traction by fueling anxieties over immigration and national identity. Immigration was a central theme during Donald Trump’s presidency, and D’Souza believes this issue could propel far-right leaders to power in countries like Germany, France, and the U.K.
“If you oppose mass immigration, you’re left with a demographic scenario similar to Japan,” D’Souza noted, pointing out that Japan’s median age (49.8 years) ranks among the highest globally.
“So how do you balance the need for economic growth with anti-immigration policies?” he continued. “The answer must be longevity and human enhancement, because there’s no alternative. We require a youthful, working, tax-contributing population, and that’s incompatible with persistently low birth rates.”
It’s a bold proposition: instead of relying on immigration or expanding social programs to boost birth rates, simply enhance people so they can remain in the workforce longer. D’Souza dismisses other policy options—Europe, he argues, already tried supporting families, but it didn’t succeed in raising birth rates.
Against this backdrop, the Enhanced Games has attracted predictable supporters, such as Thiel and Donald Trump Jr., through his venture capital firm 1789 Ventures. D’Souza describes both as “deeply invested in demographic trends.” Thiel has invested heavily in longevity ventures like Retro Biosciences, Unity Biotechnology, and NewLimit, the latter co-founded with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in 2021.
Interestingly, many of the same investors backing the Games are also wagering billions on artificial general intelligence (AGI)—AI capable of performing any intellectual task a human can—eventually surpassing human abilities in most jobs. This raises a question: if AGI is imminent, why bother extending human working lives at all?
“There’s the Sam [Altman] perspective that AGI will arrive, replace humans, and humans will become a secondary species because machines will be superior,” D’Souza said. “And the unavoidable outcome, which Sam won’t acknowledge, is that humans become obsolete.”
D’Souza offers a different vision: a rivalry between humans and machines.
“Machines are advancing rapidly, and because of outdated rules—especially from the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti Doping Agency—human enhancement is being held back, preventing us from evolving quickly enough to keep pace with machines,” he added. “My objective is to make sure humans can still compete with technology.”
However, framing the issue as a species-wide challenge overlooks the fact that not everyone will have access to these enhancements.
D’Souza suggests that “technology diffusion” will eventually allow enhancements developed for elite athletes to trickle down to fitness enthusiasts and, over time, to the broader public. Still, the business model—premium telehealth services promoted by top athletes—suggests a future where the affluent benefit from enhancements, while others simply age.
When I pointed out that enhancement technologies are likely to reach the wealthiest first—and that elites might restrict access—D’Souza did not disagree.
“I think that is a potentially harmful side effect of human enhancement,” he acknowledged.
