META CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put one of his Doomsday-ready homes on sale as the survival industry ramps up.
Zuckerberg made fans and analysts alike question what the billionaire might know that they didn’t when he reportedly planned to invest $270 million in an apocalypse-proof luxury compound in Hawaii.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put his Doomsday-ready home in South Carolina on sale for $1.15 millionCredit: Getty
The four-bedroom home in Gaffney boasts an underground bunkerCredit: Google
Shelters and Doomsday-ready homes are in demand, according to luxury bunker builders (stock)Credit: Atlas Survival Shelters
Zuckerberg sparked interest in the survival industry when he reportedly invested $270 million in a secure compound with a massive bunker in HawaiiCredit: AP
The founder of Facebook first broke ground on the project — which includes a sprawling 5,000-foot underground bunker along with several buildings and over 30 bedrooms and bathrooms — in 2021.
Other uber-wealthy celebrities have also invested in Doomsday properties in recent years that include underground bomb shelters, reinforced doors, and security systems that are the envy of the military, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Now that Zuckerberg has let the cat out of the bag, that’s got other people who share his status or are near his status starting to think, ‘Oh God, if he’s doing that, maybe he knows something that I don’t, maybe I should seek this out myself,'” said Robert Vicino, founder of Vivos, a California-based company that creates underground survival shelters.
The prepper and survival tech industry is expected to be worth $2.5 billion by 2030, according to Newsweek.
And while Zuckerburg’s top-secret compound on the smallest of Hawaii’s four main islands, Kauai, remains under construction, survivalists can scoop up his much smaller (and more affordable) South Carolina home that was put on the market earlier this year.
His 4-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom house on a 20-acre property in Gaffney boasts a single-car garage, pool, hot tub — and underground bunker, according to Realtor.com.
The 5,970-square-foot home is surrounded by lush pastures and forests, offering great privacy too.
Priced at $1.15 million and including a 4,228-square-foot workshop, it was built for the working wealthy.
And like many of the Meta CEO’s projects, little has been shared publicly about the specific perks for survivalists interested in his SC property other than the existence of the “inground bunker.”
A HAWAIIAN SAFE HAVEN
In December 2021, Zuckerberg broke ground on an estimated $270 million 57,000-square-foot Doomsday bunker.
It had “its own energy and food supplies” and employed hundreds of local workers, who were kept silent about their jobs by NDAs, Wired reported.
“It’s fight club. We don’t talk about fight club,” one former contract employee said.
The NDAs are taken so seriously that some people have allegedly been fired for not sticking to the rules.
“Anything posted from here, they get wind of it right away,” the employee said.
The property appears to be relatively self-sufficient, with its own energy and water systems under construction.
There is an industrial-sized kitchen and full-sized gym on-site as well.
APOCOLYPSE NOW?
Although Zuckerberg’s blockbuster purchase in Hawaii brought a new spotlight to the prepper world, people have been planning for the end of the world for a while.
“It’s no secret that the one-percenters and top-ranking government officials have been in on this bunker idea for a long-a** time,” Vicino said.
The instability of the last decade has spurred on growth in the industry and interest in survival preparation and training.
“The pandemic was a huge driver of interest in sales; then all the global concerns and issues at home are another boost,” the professional prepper said.
Several developers agreed with Vicino and said they have been booked solid since Zuckerberg started building the massive facility.
In addition to Zuckerberg, billionaire former Paypal CEO Peter Thiel attempted to build a Doomsday getaway in New Zealand, but abandoned the plans in 2022.
And Bill Gates reportedly has a bunker underneath every one of his several homes — just in case.
