Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has spent the past few years acquiring a large tract of land on the picturesque and remote island of Hawaii.
The tech billionaire is currently building a luxury estate rumored to cost a whopping $260 million, but his plans include a secret underground bunker twice the size of the average Australian home. is also included.
Reports about the project have sparked concern in some corners of the internet, prompting a flurry of inquiries for companies building underground shelters.
Mr. Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has not commented on the bunker revelations and said that anyone working on his premises will be subject to strict regulations. He is subject to a gag order.
But he appears to have been secretly planning a fortified retreat for at least a decade.
Zack’s shopping spree
It was Christmas in 2016 when Zuckerberg shared a happy photo of his family enjoying the Hawaiian island of Kauai on his social media platform.
Home to approximately 73,000 local residents, this pristine paradise is known as the ‘Garden Isle’ and has been the setting for major Hollywood productions such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Jurassic Park.
Most of the residents are descendants of Native Hawaiians as well as Chinese, Puerto Rican, and Filipino immigrants who came to work on sugar plantations in the late 19th century.
It is loved by tourists all over the world, and recently by the rich and famous.
“A few years ago, Priscilla and I visited Kauai and fell in love with the region and the cloudy green mountains,” Zuckerberg wrote in 2016.
“We came back many times with family and friends, but ultimately decided to put down roots ourselves and get involved in the community.
“We purchase land and are dedicated to preserving its natural beauty. It is home to wildlife such as pigs, turtles, rare birds and seals, and local farmers grow fruit and We use it to grow spices. I love taking Max out to explore and seeing all the animals.”
Records show he began his shopping spree in 2014.
Days after Zuckerberg’s Christmas post, hundreds of Hawaiians who may have an interest in a small plot of land on Zuckerberg’s property filed a lawsuit against him.
Because of Hawaii’s colonial past, much of the land has a complex ownership history, including a concept known as “kuleana.”
Hawaiian law allows ancestral land to be transferred to descendants without formal deeds, which could mean large numbers of people owning some shares in the land on Zuckerberg’s property. It means that.
His lawsuit forced his descendants to choose between selling their land or legally forcing it to be put up for public auction.
Although there was considerable dissatisfaction among local residents, Makala Ka’aumoana, executive director of an environmental group in Hanalei, Kauai, thought the lawsuit was “a good thing.”
“It’s always sad when families lose their land, whatever the reason, but at least this way they are compensated,” Kaamoana said. guardian.
huge compound
Since then, Zuckerberg has confiscated a total of 5.5 million square meters of land, surrounded it with two-metre-high walls, surrounded by security guards and patrolled by security forces on quad bikes.
To put this huge site into perspective, this equates to 1,359 acres, or 550 hectares of land, or approximately 80 per cent of the size of Sydney’s CBD.
Tech magazine survey Wired revealed details about what Zuckerberg plans to do with the island’s real estate, which is estimated to be worth $176 billion.
“[The] “The complex consists of more than a dozen buildings with a total of at least 30 bedrooms and 30 bathrooms,” the report said, revealing planning documents obtained by the press.
“It is mainly composed of two residences with a total floor area comparable to a professional soccer field.” [5295 square metres] It features multiple elevators, offices, conference rooms, and a commercial-sized kitchen.
“In the nearby woodland, a network of 11 disk-shaped treehouses, connected by intricate rope bridges, allows visitors to climb from one building to the next while staying in the treetops. It is planned that it will be possible to cross to.
“The building opposite the main residence features a full-size gym, pool, sauna, hot tub, cold plunge, and tennis court. Other guesthouses and operational buildings are scattered throughout the property.”
But its most eyebrow-raising features lie far from view.
“The plan is for the two central residences to be connected by a tunnel that will branch out into 5,000-square-foot lots.” [464 square metres] An underground shelter with living space, a mechanical room, and a ladder-accessible evacuation exit. ”
This bunker, complete with blast doors, is astonishingly large – twice the size of the average Australian house.
They are completely self-sufficient and produce their own food and water.
Once completed, Zuckerberg’s Hawaii estate will rank as one of the most expensive private properties in the world.
Few other details are known about this bunker.
Anyone entering the premises must sign a strict non-disclosure agreement and employees are sworn to secrecy, according to reports.
Various media reports mention that a worker was fired for sharing a selfie taken on the premises on social media, but the post was quickly discovered by Zuckerberg’s representatives. .
“This is fight club,” a former contractor told Wired. “We don’t talk about fight club.”
What does Zack know?
When news of Zuckerberg’s bunker construction broke, Atlas Survival Shelters boss Ron Hubbard said, “We got really busy.”
“[It] sparked a buying frenzy [and] The phone won’t stop ringing [like] “World War III is coming,” Hubbard said. hollywood reporter.
He said one of the bunkers sold was an underground facility in Oklahoma for US$7.5 million (A$11.5 million).
Robert Vicino, founder of another bunker design and construction company called Del Mar, also received a flurry of interest from interested buyers.
“Zuckerberg letting the cat out of the bag makes other people in his position, or close to him, say, “Oh my God, if he’s doing that, maybe… I’m starting to think, “Maybe he knows something that I don’t know, maybe.” I have to find this out for myself,” Vicino told The Hollywood Reporter.
“But it’s no secret that the core of the 1 percent and government officials have been involved in this bunker concept for a long time. The pandemic has been a huge factor in increasing interest in the sale. Global concerns and domestic issues will provide further support.”
Facebook groups for would-be bunker builders and “doomsday preparers” in Australia are filled with posts asking for advice on underground shelters.
Questions include the fallout radius of nuclear bombs dropped on Sydney and Melbourne, air and water filtration systems, and appropriate locations.
However, there don’t seem to be many, if any, local builders advertising bunker-specific services.
A few years ago there was an operation specializing in underground shelters, but it appears to have been shut down.
Atlas Survival Shelters claims it is “coming soon” to Australia.
Zuckerberg’s bunker has certainly given rise to many conspiracies as well as many theories about his motives for big-ticket projects.
But in an analysis written by Katherine Guinness, Grant Vollmer and Tom Doig in The Conversation, conversationprovides much simpler logic.
“Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth in 2024 will be an almost unfathomable A$260 billion,” they write.
“A $400 million Hawaiian fortress may be extravagant, but it’s less than 0.2 per cent of his total wealth. As a percentage, this means that only a household with a net worth of $1 million (the average Australian net worth) That’s the equivalent of spending $1,540.”
Therefore, people in the Billionaire Banker Club do not need to believe in the possibility of some kind of apocalypse or social collapse in any “firm or meaningful sense.”
“Rather, since they have so much money that they don’t know what to do with it, they could use a small portion of it to build underground fortresses.
“For example, Bill Gates owns at least eight properties in the United States alone; hollywood reporter“There are rumors that there is an underground security area under all of his homes.”
“For billionaires, putting money into such projects doesn’t mean they’re crazy or paranoid or have any special secret knowledge about the future. It’s simply that It means they have a huge surplus of wealth, so they can do something with it.”
Bunkering is a fast-growing business
The apparent demand for bunkers from the elite was so strong that Swiss shelter builders commissioned a leading French architect to design a range of them.
Marc Prijean, who trained at the École Bourg in Paris and runs his own clinic, created the L’Eritage shelter for Oppidum.
Prigent describes L’Héritage as “totally beyond any description we’ve received of a safe space.”
“They are designed, conceived and created without compromise to be worthy of our clients and the objects they seek to enjoy, preserve and protect,” he said.
Boasting five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, this expansive bunker is packed with luxury features, from 5-metre-high ceilings to a pool, cinema, gym and even a mini art gallery.
“It’s hard to believe that you’re deep underground, surrounded by a thick layer of reinforced concrete, especially when you smell the fresh flowers coming from the courtyard,” Oppidum said in promotional materials.
It is also airtight, protected from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons blasts, and earthquake resistant.
Al Kolbi, president of Strategic Armor and Enhanced Environment, said that part of the bunker market demands the highest level of protection.
Kolbi said. hollywood reporter One client, an unnamed business mogul, was desperate to protect his family from everyone and everything.
“We literally ended up building a huge structure 30 feet deep.” [9.1m] lake [around the compound] “It can be removed with a flammable liquid lighter than water and turn into a ring of fire,” he said.
A moat of fire, so to speak.
Mysterious Australian bunker discovered
A few years ago, an urban explorer named Jim’s Urbex discovered something incredible in an abandoned house in Adelaide.
While sniffing around the remains of the dwelling, he noticed a pile of “worn carpet” and pulled it back to reveal a trapdoor.
Deep underground, there was a bunker that had never been seen before.
“This was not a small one-room bomb shelter,” he wrote on his blog. “It was a fully decorated nuclear bunker capable of sustaining life underground for the foreseeable future (if society collapses).
“The underground structure is the size of a small house and includes a living room, kitchen, two bathrooms and one bedroom.
“We have all the features in place to help us survive a nuclear holocaust, including multiple water tanks containing purified water, an air filtration and purification system, and multiple 8-inch-thick blast doors.
“The blast door was imported from overseas and was made of sturdy metal. Now, I’m not very athletic (I’m a weak office worker), but I tried to move this door. When I did that, I had a really hard time. I could clearly see how they were going to be able to fend off hordes of bloodthirsty zombies.”
