4 Bizarre Leaked Features Of Mark Zuckerberg's Secret Bunker
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been the subject of much scrutiny and controversy over the years. His website grew from the campus of Harvard to become the first ubiquitous social media platform, and he became a billionaire by age 23. A decade later, he and his company have been at the center of data mining scandals, ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, been dragged before Congress multiple times, and renamed his company Meta as he attempts to strap VR headsets to all of humanity. So, of course, he's got a gigantic, secret lair on a remote island of Hawaii.
In a recent expose from WIRED, the details of Zuckerberg's Hawaii compound were revealed to the public for the first time. If you needed proof that real-world billionaires are becoming indistinguishable from James Bond villains, here it is. Across 1,400 acres on the North Shore of Kauai, the complex contains more than a dozen buildings, an underground city, and a sprawling tree fort. The only thing missing is a volcano — oh, never mind, it has one of those, too.
According to the report, the Meta CEO has been scooping up land on the Hawaiian island of Kauai since 2014 to build his bunker, and those working on the project are sworn to secrecy with strictly enforced NDAs. To collect information about the operation, WIRED carefully conducted anonymous interviews. Here are some of the most bizarre features of Zuckerberg's bunker, which he calls Koolau Ranch (there's got to be a catchier name than that. The Zuckerbunker? Bunkerberg? Okay, proceeding with the list).
How the word got out
The most striking thing about Mark Zuckerberg's megalomaniacal maze of mammoth mansions and subterranean structures isn't that it exists but how hard the billionaire worked to conceal it from the public. One Kauai architect compared Zuckerberg's ambitions to those of ancient kings who killed their architects to preserve palatial secrets, while those on-site have compared the project to top-secret military installations and the fight club from the movie "Fight Club."
Nevertheless, it was impossible to hide a construction project of this scale from the Hawaiian locals, who retain a tight-knit community. Despite a significant portion of the island being bound by NDAs, knowledge of the bunker spread along the local grapevine. Some speculate that Zuckerberg intends the facility as a doomsday bunker, which may explain the blast-resistant door and underground shelter with concrete-reinforced metal — more on that later. It would also explain the compound's self-sufficient water and power systems, as well as the on-site agricultural operations.
Like those building pyramids for the pharaohs or soccer stadiums for the World Cup, workers on the Zuckerbunker have fallen victim to injury and death. A 53-year-old crane operator was hospitalized after his crane tumbled down a hill, and a 70-year-old security guard died after becoming stranded on a rainy beach and succumbing to a heart attack. The guard's family alleged in a wrongful death suit that there was an attempt to cover up information related to the incident.
Meanwhile, local journalists have become persona non grata. Allan Parachini, who wrote an opinion piece for The Garden Island expressing criticism of Zuckerberg's land use, claims he was cut off from communication and even barred from crossing the property line to save a seal as part of his volunteer marine rescue work.
The compound has multiple mansions
In the movie "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," a tech billionaire, played by Edward Norton, builds a sprawling compound on a remote private island. The movie is a satire of the hubris displayed by modern billionaires. Yet, the compound built by Norton's character pales in comparison to that currently being erected in Hawaii by Mark Zuckerberg. Norton's character might have kept the "Mona Lisa" on his island paradise. Still, according to WIRED, Zuckerberg's Koolau Ranch has more than a dozen buildings comprising 30 bedrooms, 30 bathrooms, two mansions, offices, conference rooms, elevators, and an industrial kitchen to keep everyone fed.
In fact, despite the ongoing construction, Zuckerberg has already assembled the top executives of Meta at the compound for corporate events, such as one reported on by the Wall Street Journal in April 2020.
But mansions alone won't do for someone of Zuckerberg's magnitude. Abutting the two mansions is a third structure meant for rest and relaxation. It includes all the luxuries of a spa, country club, and gym rolled into one — with multiple swimming pools, a sauna, a cold plunge, a hot tub, a weight room, and even a tennis court. Zuckerberg has been taking his fitness extremely seriously, even becoming a gold medalist in Brazillian jiu-jitsu and landing himself in the hospital during MMA training. It doesn't seem like he plans to stop his Batman training during trips to Hawaii.
The bunker has secret doors
If you're going to build a Bond villain-esque secret hideout on an island, you might as well go whole hog on the concept. Sure, you could put normal doors on it like a normal person, but where's the fun in that? According to WIRED, Mark Zuckerberg equipped his sprawling Kauai headquarters with a variety of hidden doors, blast doors, and other high-tech entrances.
According to the report, many of the doors in the compound are blind doors, meaning they've been designed to blend into the surrounding walls. This includes the doors in the compound's library. As far as we know, none of these doors lead to hidden passages, but they do appear to align with Zuckerberg's emphasis on personal privacy. According to Danielle Citron, a privacy expert who spoke with WIRED, she once visited one of Zuckerberg's homes in Silicon Valley and was unable to find the entrance — until a section of what appeared to be hedges around the property turned out to be doors that swung open to let her in.
Meanwhile, the door to the bunker's underground bomb shelter is the most bizarre of all. It is comprised of a metal shell filled with concrete, making it resistant to explosions. Other doors around the complex are designed to be soundproof, adding another layer of mystery to the entire operation.
Zuckerberg built a tree fort playground
Deep within Mark Zuckerberg's Hawaii enclave lies a whimsical structure straight out of Mirkwood: a network of 11 flying saucer-shaped treehouses connected to one another via a system of rope bridges. While futuristic technology, mansions, and doomsday bunkers characterize the rest of the compound, this arboreal fortress evokes a bizarre image — that of a Silicon Valley billionaire acting out a childhood fantasy. This network of treetop "Tarzan" huts is certainly a grade above any treehouse Zuckerberg may have had as a kid himself, and maybe he intends to give his own children something to brag about at school.
However, it seems like the man himself is a bit preoccupied with living like a chimpanzee. Multiple virtual environments, the closest things to home screens on Meta's Oculus Quest 2 and Quest 3, feature balconies or terraces that place the user among the treetops. Whatever the reason for its construction, it's hard not to laugh when imagining Mark Zuckerberg asking guests if they want to see his tree fort.
Sustainable farm
While Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos seem ready to seek other planets when things turn sour on our blue-green ball, Mark Zuckerberg's fortress of solitude seems designed to hunker down here on Earth. The compound's food supply comes courtesy of a full ranching and agriculture operation on the premises, meaning that even if the rest of the world falls into famine, Zuckerberg and his family will be well-fed.
According to a December 2021 report from SFGate, the ranch operation is raising cattle and horses, while the agricultural operation boasts ginger and turmeric crops, with a spokesperson claiming that all of the farming and ranching practices are sustainable. Of course, sustainable is a buzzword we associate with eco-friendliness, but it also implies self-sufficiency. The Zuckerbunker is also equipped with its own water supply. A water tank, generously sized at 18 feet tall and 55 feet in diameter, carries water across Koolau Ranch via a pump system.
Maybe the tech billionaire wants to ensure his meals are served farm-to-table. Still, between the ranching operation and the underground bunker, it's easy to see why some Kauai locals are convinced Koolau Ranch is intended as the site from which the ultra-wealthy tech mogul rides out the end of civilization. For their part, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, declined comment regarding what WIRED calls the "bunker-like qualities of the project."