Mark Zuckerberg has dismissed reports that he is building a 5,000 square meter “doomsday bunker” under a $270m compound in Hawaii – insisting instead that it is just a “small shelter”.
The 40-year-old tech mogul was asked during a December. 19 interview with Bloomberg regarding rumors that he is building an underground facility beneath his 1,400-acre home on the island of Kauai, one of the northernmost islands in the North Pacific archipelago.
“No, I think it’s just like a little shelter. It’s like a basement,” Zuckerberg, the world’s third-richest person behind Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang.
Several wealthy individuals have been rumored to have built large tunnels and underground networks in preparation for potential disasters, including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Tesla CEO Musk and disgraced rapper Kanye “Ye” West.
Zuckerberg, who as of Thursday boasted a net worth estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $215 billion, has insisted that the farm’s goal is to raise “world-class” cattle with beer and macadamia nuts in order to ” create some of the highest”. quality beef in the world.”
In December of last year, Wired reported that Zuckerberg was in the process of building Koolau Ranch, a 1,400-acre compound that includes a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter as well as more than a dozen buildings with at least 30 bedrooms and 30 bathroom. in total.
According to the report, the shelter is the size of an NBA basketball court and more than twice the size of the average private family home in the US.
The farm will have its own energy and food supplies, according to the Wired report, which noted that locals on the island with a population of about 73,000 people were speculating about what the project would entail.
The centerpiece of the project are two buildings that boast a total area the size of a football field – 57,000 square meters, according to the report.
The two buildings will reportedly be connected together by a tunnel that branches off into the underground facility.
Each of the dozens of buildings that include guest houses and operational facilities will be connected by rope bridges that allow visitors to pass from one building to another while stopping at 11 disc-shaped treehouses.
According to WIRED and Hawaii News Now, one of the buildings will reportedly feature a full-size gym, swimming pools, saunas, a hot tub, a cold plunge and a tennis court.
The property, which is likely to be one of the most expensive in the world, is also said to include several elevators, offices, conference rooms and an industrial-sized kitchen.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that the shelter will have a metal and concrete-filled “blast-proof door” as well as a living space, a mechanical room and an escape hatch accessible via a ladder.
The Zuckerbergs are also reported to have installed about 20 security cameras for just one of the buildings on the farm, according to WIRED.
The compound’s doors are said to be keyboard-operated or soundproofed, while the library’s doors are so-called “blind doors” that are designed to mimic the design of the surrounding walls, according to WIRED.
Planning documents obtained by WIRED indicated that the complex will be self-sufficient as it will include its own water tank that is 55 feet in diameter and 18 feet high and powered by a pumping system.
The farm already produces its own food thanks to cattle and horses, as well as a nursery, an organic ginger farm and a nearby turmeric farm.
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have purchased land on Kauai in three installments — paying $17 million for 110 acres in December 2021; purchase of 600 hectares for $53 million in April 2021; and buying 700 acres for more than $100 million in 2014.
In 2016, Allan Parachini, a local journalist, wrote a critical op-ed that took Zuckerberg to task for “erecting a rock wall in front of his 700-acre oceanfront property.”
He called on residents to “tell Zuckerberg that abusing his stewardship of public beaches as if we’re just another set of Facebook victims is unacceptable.”
Parachini told WIRED that after he wrote the piece, Zuckerberg’s communications aides told him the Facebook founder would no longer cooperate with him on any future requests for interviews or comments.
The post has requested a comment from Meta.
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