Mark Zuckerberg's underground bunker is just a small part of his sprawling Hawaii compound
Zuckerberg is spending close to $300 million to build his dream home and make sure his family (and at least 30 of his closest friends) can survive the worst disasters earth can throw at him.
A couple of weeks, Mark Zuckerberg pulled the curtain back, slightly, on his super-secret doomsday bunker for the first time on Instagram.
In the video we get a glimpse of the tech mogul's wife taking an elevator before emerging in a theater where Zuckerberg is playing videogames on a projection screen.
The video is pretty innocent, and may be a way for the world's fifth richest man, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, to get some good press out about the sprawling clandestine property he is building out in Hawaii.
No one, probably not even Zuckerberg himself, could have imagined what the compound would be when the Meta Platforms (META) - Get Free Report CEO and founder purchased his first 700 acres of land on Kauai, the smallest and oldest of Hawaii's four main islands, in 2014.
Building the property has been hazardous, both in the physical building of the compound as well as to the relationship between Zuckerberg and his new neighbors, many of whom are natives whose roots on the island go back generations.
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But a six-foot high wall, armed security guards and strict NDAs for construction workers hasn't kept the media and public from finding out some of the details about the sprawling, 1,400 acre estate.
Wired interviewed former construction workers at the site, viewed public planning documents and talked to Zuckerberg's new neighbors in order to come up with a $270 million estimate for the money the social media magnate has spent on the property, which is currently known as Koolau Ranch.
But the public doesn't seem very interested in the two main mansions that serve as the center piece of the property (57,000 square feet of space, equivalent to a football field), or the other dozens of buildings on the property that contain at least 30 bedrooms and 30 bathrooms combined, or the fact that the ranch is self-sustainable and features Angus and wagyu cattle.
No, social media is way more enamored with the 5,000-square-foot underground bunker that is being constructed underneath those buildings.
According to building plans, the door in the underground shelter will be constructed out of metal and filled with concrete. It will be self-sufficient, with a water tank that is 55 feet in diameter and 18 feet tall.
But Zuck isn't the only 1%er building the ultimate getaway compound.
Texas-based Rising S Company told CNN in 2019 that sales of its custom high-end underground bunkers grew 700% in 2016 compared to 2015. The same company told Forbes more recently that it's been with a more than 2,000% increase in inquiries from "potential buyers concerned about their security."
Even the substantially less wealthy aren't getting in on the doomsday prepping fun.
Rapper Rick Ross recently took to social media to brag about the plans for his own secret bunker, which — apparently unlike Elon Musk's bunker — has a garage for his cars.
"We're breaking ground. We're excavating. It's going down. One time for all my doomsday preppers," exclaimed the rapper. "Elon Musk. I see you, I saw your ground plans. I'm impressed, but guess what... My bunker gonna have a garage!"
Rick Ross, the boss, has revealed that he is constructing a bunker.
Tells Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/crip0pF2Tm— West-Coast Certified (@CrakkDj) January 21, 2024
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