Everything we know about the gigantic complex — complete with a bunker — that Mark Zuckerberg is building in Hawaii

It all started with a massive land purchase. Mark Zuckerberg, the omnipotent CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook — according to Forbes, he’s the fifth richest man in the world, with a fortune estimated at $129.9 billion — acquired land on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in 2014 for $170 million. It was the first step toward building himself a residence there. Or so it was thought.

The project was controversial almost from the very beginning, largely because it disrupts daily life on a small island with so much nature that it is called “the garden island.” It is a paradise where Jurassic Park and Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed. The island has 73,000 inhabitants and has not been living off tourism for very long. They say that there was only one traffic light on the whole island until 1973. They say that its inhabitants — a mixture of native Hawaiians with Asian and Puerto Rican migrants, descendants of those who came to work in the sugar cane plantations — all know each other. The hundreds of workers hired for Zuckerberg’s pharaonic project are subject to a strict confidentiality agreement and, in such a close-knit community, that can only give rise to rumors and mistrust.

But even before construction began, opposition to the project went global. A petition on Change.org calling for a halt to the Facebook CEO’s “colonialism” in Hawaii gathered one million signatures. “He is suing Native Hawaiians in Kauai for their land so he can build a mansion. They have built lives there. They have built families there… He’s building a mansion to what? Live in Kauai for two months out of the year? This is inhuman. It is sick,” the petition read. At the time, Zuckerberg was trying to take over the parcels that resisted him, pushing to limit the right-of-way through his newly acquired land and fencing off his properties so no one could know what was going on inside. Locals were superfluous to Zuckerberg, and that went over very badly with them.

Wired, the world’s most popular new technology magazine, obtained access to the plans for the site, but only the ones that appear in public documents, because the project is being kept secret. And it seems that Zuckerberg’s idea goes far beyond building a little house with a garden to spend the summer there. According to the magazine, he has acquired a huge amount of land: 500 hectares. To give you an idea, that’s about 65 times the size of Buckingham Palace or Versailles Palace. “Detailed planning documents obtained by WIRED through a series of public record requests show the makings of an opulent techno-Xanadu, complete with underground shelter and what appears to be a blast-resistant door,” the article notes.

According to Wired, the complex features over a dozen buildings. The central core is made up of two mansions (their height is unknown), with at least 30 rooms and 30 bathrooms, elevators, offices, conference rooms and an industrial kitchen. A third building next to the mansions includes a gym, sauna, Jacuzzi, spa, swimming pool and tennis court. In a nearby forest, 11 disc-shaped tree houses will be built in the trees, linked by a lattice of rope bridges. There are more complexes throughout the property, from guest houses to administrative and service buildings. The project is far enough along that Zuckerberg has already held two corporate events at the complex, which is envisioned as self-sufficient: it has a huge water reservoir and land dedicated to farming and ranching.

But the underground part has attracted the most attention. “The plans show that the two central mansions will be joined by a tunnel that branches off into a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter, featuring living space, a mechanical room, and an escape hatch that can be accessed via a ladder,” Wired reports. “The door in the underground shelter will be constructed out of metal and filled in with concrete—a style common in bunkers and bomb shelters.” The work’s total price is difficult to calculate, but Wired estimates it at a minimum of $100 million, plus $170 million for the land. That makes it the largest civil engineering project ever undertaken on the island. But, apparently, it has not required any sort of public evaluation.

And what does Zuckerberg have to say about all this? Shortly after the article was published, he uploaded a seconds-long video to Instagram in which he appears to laugh at the information. It is called “Meanwhile, in the bunker...” and shows his wife, Priscilla Chan, barefoot, approaching a kind of underground theater in which Zuckerberg is playing a video game with two friends, apparently hidden. Priscilla scolds him: “Here again?” Zuckerberg replies, “Just a minute, we’ll be right up.” Officially, Meta’s spokeswoman sent Wired a statement saying, “Mark and Priscilla value the time their family spends at Koolau Ranch and in the local community and are committed to preserving the ranch’s natural beauty… Under their care, less than one percent of the overall land is developed with the vast majority dedicated to farming, ranching, conservation, open spaces, and wildlife preservation.”

Moreover, in the face of criticism and, especially, lawsuits, Zuckerberg has opted to become the island’s biggest benefactor, donating $20 million to different charities; $4.2 million to a municipal jobs project; $3.5 million for aid during the pandemic and $4 million to buy the Alakoko fishpond, a pond built a thousand years ago. Wired says that Malama Huleia, an NGO with links to the local government, manages the pond. That has raised suspicions: “[It’s a] strategic plan to get all the big dogs on his side,” Billy DeCosta, a member of the Kauai County Council, told Wired.

The strategy has worked. Given Zuckerberg and his wife’s generosity, they are being showered with requests: there is only one movie theater on the island? Zuckerberg is asked to open another. The millionaire is flooding Kauai with dollars, the properties are increasing in value, and the same DeCosta who insinuated that the Meta owner was buying influence, seems to see the enormous project’s positive side: “What’s better? One Zuckerberg who owns 1,000 acres, or 100 millionaires who each own 100 acres?” he asks in the magazine. Perhaps the real question is: How is it possible that an island paradise of 73,000 inhabitants needs so much money for charity?

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