"Im sure all of you here know Google. Google and Virgin have got together, and weve formed a new company called Virgle," Branson said, midway through his CTIA keynote. "Larry and Sergey put a considerable amount of investment in - and I put in a slightly lesser investment. The values of our companies are slightly different.

"Basically, what were doing is building a giant Noahs Ark, a space ship that is powered by the sun, and it will carry 30 passengers."