Some of the world’s richest tech moguls are not just investing in the next startup. They are investing in their own survival. Mark Zuckerberg is digging bunkers in Hawaii. Sam Altman owns gold, gas masks, and land to escape to. Reid Hoffman jokes that a house in New Zealand is now a high-status form of “apocalypse insurance.”

They call it “doomsday prepping,” but this isn’t the average guy stocking canned beans in his garage. This is billionaire-level prepping, like private compounds, underground shelters, and escape routes mapped out across the globe.

Inside the Bunkers of the Billionaire Class

Let’s start with Zuckerberg. His 1,400-acre Hawaiian estate, Koolau Ranch, hides more than just ocean views. Reports say he has built a massive underground bunker there, complete with its own energy and food supplies. That is 5,000 square feet of survival, dug right into paradise.

Zuck / IG / In Palo Alto, tech titan Mark Zuckerberg has added another 7,000 square feet underground. And all of it is built under strict NDAs, so the details stay buried.

Then there is Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn. He is the one who coined the phrase “apocalypse insurance.” New Zealand, he says, is the preferred escape hatch for the ultra-rich. It is remote, stable, and safe. Peter Thiel, founder of Palantir, owns land there too.

Ilya Sutskever, former chief scientist at OpenAI, reportedly said they would build a bunker before releasing AGI, Artificial General Intelligence. He is not alone. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, once listed off his doomsday kit: guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks, and a backup property to flee to.

Why the Ultra-Rich Are Prepping to Escape

So, why are they doing this? Part fear, part privilege. With almost unlimited money, these tech giants can hedge against low-probability, high-impact risks. For them, it is like buying insurance. The odds might be low, but the stakes are sky-high. They don’t know exactly what is coming, just that something might.

And that “something” could be anything. Climate disaster. Global war. Pandemic. AI gone rogue. Economic collapse. Social unrest. They are bracing for all of it. And unlike the rest of us, they can actually act on their worries.

Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff once sat in a room with several tech billionaires who wanted to know how to keep their security teams loyal after the collapse.

Billionaire’s Club / Rushkoff called this mindset “The Mindset.” It is the idea that the best plan is to escape, not fix. To transcend, not engage.

Build your own safe zone while the rest of the world burns. For them, it is a private exit ramp from the chaos.

What This Means for Everyone Else

Just because billionaires are prepping doesn’t mean you should panic. Experts say their fears often outpace reality. When it comes to AGI, for example, top scholars argue it is still far off. Professor Neil Lawrence from Cambridge says AGI is about as real as a flying car that drives itself.

Professor Wendy Hall points out that today’s AI can do amazing tricks but still falls far short of human intelligence. Vince Lynch, CEO of IV.AI, goes even further. He calls AGI fear a great way to sell hype and generate revenue.

Still, the fact that tech’s top minds are preparing for collapse says something. It doesn’t prove the end is near, but it does reflect cracks in the system. It highlights deep concerns about how tech is reshaping the world, sometimes in ways we can’t control: disinformation, mass surveillance, job automation, and widening inequality.

Those are real problems, happening now. And the people shaping the future seem less interested in solving them than escaping from them.

Sven Kramer

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