Bryan Johnson spent $2 million to stay young, now he’s trying to not die at all

Bryan Johnson, the entrepreneur who made headlines for spending over $2 million a year to reverse his biological age, says he's ready to pull the plug on his supplement startup, Blueprint. The reason? He believes the company undermines what actually matters to him now, his philosophical movement Don’t Die, which argues that human existence should be our highest value.

Blueprint, which sells health products based on Johnson’s own intense daily regimen, may be shut down or sold. Johnson told Wired he’s close to walking away, despite pouring $25 million of his own money into the business.
“Honestly, I’m so close to either shutting it down or selling it… I don’t need the money, and it’s a pain-in-the-a company.”**

A shift in values

Johnson insists this isn’t a business decision, it’s a philosophical one. He says Don’t Die can’t be taken seriously while he’s still tied to a company that sells supplements.

“People see the business and take me less seriously on the philosophy side. I won’t make that trade-off. It’s not worth it.”

In short, selling products is getting in the way of what he sees as his actual mission: building a new belief system for a future shaped by artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and the possibility of radically extended life.

From Braintree to biohacking

Johnson made his fortune in 2013, selling his payments company Braintree (which acquired Venmo) to PayPal for $800 million. He walked away with about $300 million, then turned his attention to science and health.

He started Kernel, a neurotech company focused on brain activity, and later launched Project Blueprint, a strict health protocol he uses to measure and reverse the markers of ageing. That includes a vegan diet, dozens of pills daily, laser therapy, plasma infusions from his teenage son, and constant testing. Johnson claims the programme has given him the biological profile of an 18-year-old.

Blueprint, the company, was built to package and sell that protocol to the public. But now he says it’s become a liability.

Financial pressure or philosophical pivot?

A recent New York Times report painted Blueprint as a struggling business, losing over $1 million a month, with tense internal politics and strict confidentiality rules. Johnson pushed back hard.

“The business—that was f---ing made up,” he told Wired. “We’ve had profitable months, we’ve had loss months. We priced our products to be break-even.”

He said he’s been open about the finances and that the point was never to make money, “I put in $25 million of my own money. It’s never been about commercial success.”

Still, the friction is real. Running a business, he says, is a distraction from the bigger idea.

What 'Don’t Die' is really about

Launched in early 2025, Don’t Die is Johnson’s attempt to turn his extreme personal project into a shared ideology. He calls it a philosophical framework or possibly even a religion for the AI era. The core belief: existence should be our highest priority.

Johnson follows his routine like clockwork. He wakes at dawn, uses artificial sunlight, completes an exact sequence of workouts and therapies, and eats his last meal by noon. He’s even developing an AI version of himself 'Bryan AI' to model his thinking and possibly extend his presence beyond death.

Asked if he believes he’ll die one day, Johnson responded, “False.”

But immortality isn’t the goal. The goal is choosing not to go extinct.

“When superintelligence arrives, wealth and status will be irrelevant compared to existence,” he said.
“We need a new way of thinking about what matters.”

So what happens to Blueprint?

Johnson hasn’t made a final call. He’s weighing whether to sell the company or shut it down completely. Either way, he’s made it clear: Blueprint was a vehicle, not the destination.

He says Don’t Die is the real project now, a belief system he hopes can outlast brands, outlast institutions, and maybe even outlast biology.

“The one thing we all have in common,” he said, “is that none of us wants to die right now.”