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Topics: News, US News, Hawaii, Mark Zuckerberg
Kit Roberts
Topics: News, US News, Hawaii, Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is building one of the largest houses in the US - which includes one feature that has worrying implications about where the tech mogul thinks the world is heading.
The billionaire founder of Facebook has started construction on the enormous mansion in Hawaii, which is reported to include its own village and underground bunker.
Documents obtained by WIRED detail a sprawling 1,400-acre compound, which is reportedly costing some $270 million.
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The compound will include several mansions, a village, and an underground bunker of some 5,000 square feet.
There will also be some 30 bedrooms, as well as amenities including swimming pools, saunas, conference rooms, and a library.
The two main residences will be connected via an underground tunnel, branching off to the bunker which itself will feature a living area, library, and escape hatch.
It will also be contained behind soundproofed made of metal and concrete.
The enormous estate will also be self-sufficient, with its own water and food supply.
One unusual feature is a network of 11 treehouses which will be connected via a series of rope bridges.
Tech billionaire Zuckerberg, 39, and his wife Priscilla Chan, 38, purchased 110 acres of a former sugar plantation on Kauai, Hawaii's oldest island, back in 2021.
This adds to the couple's already impressive 1,300 acre portfolio of real estate, and the enormous site is thought to be one of the largest personal construction projects of all time, sprawling over at 57,000 square feet in a mammoth undertaking.
But the project has sparked controversy from Hawaiian advocacy groups, who argue that the estate is part of a wider trend of wealthy people depriving Hawaiians of their land by buying it up.
A 2020 petition on Change.org read: "Hawaiians are already mistreated enough as is. We need to let them have this. Their land is important to them.
"He's building a mansion to what? Live in Kauai for two months out of the year? This is inhuman. It is sick. He needs to be stopped.
"There are plenty of open spaces no one has claimed. Yet he has to pick a place where people are trying to make a living and support their families? It's disgusting. Don't let the privileged steal things that don't belong to them any longer."
In 2020, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg denied that families were being 'forced out'.
The spokesperson said: "Beyond the ranch, Mark and Priscilla have made commitments to Kauai charitable organizations that help to improve the island's education and health care systems, promote conservation and help to promote efforts to recover from flooding and Covid-19.
"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.
"This includes a large cattle ranching program, organic ginger and turmeric farms, a nursery dedicated to native plant restoration, and partnering with Kauai's foremost wildlife conservation experts to protect native birds and other endangered or threatened wildlife populations."
UNILAD has reached out to representatives of Mark Zuckerberg for a comment.