Are Tech Billionaires Preparing for the End of the World?

🏠 It seems even those who promised us an eternal digital spring are secretly digging their own bunkers. While ordinary people debate whether to install solar panels at their cottages, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and company appear to have decided that the best way to survive the apocalypse is to build their own underground paradise.

Back in 2014, Zuckerberg began constructing Koolau Ranch — a massive complex on Hawaii’s Kauai Island covering 1,400 acres (roughly the size of a small European city). According to Wired magazine, the complex includes not only villas but also a carefully hidden underground shelter with autonomous power sources and food supplies. Builders, incidentally, signed non-disclosure agreements — as if it were not a house, but a new version of Facebook, only without data leaks.

A nearly two-meter concrete wall securely hid the project from prying eyes. And when asked if he was building an end-of-the-world bunker, Zuckerberg categorically said “no.” According to him, “it’s just a small basement.” Of course. With life support systems, water supply, and emergency power — a typical basement, every house has one, right?

Journalists found other interesting details: in California, Zuckerberg purchased 11 real estate lots, under which, according to locals, there is an underground complex of about 650 square meters. Formally, these are “spacious basements”; informally, a “billionaire’s cave.”

And he’s not alone. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman once called it an “apocalypse insurance” — according to him, nearly half of ultra-wealthy people already have such shelters. The most popular survival destinations are New Zealand and Hawaii — apparently, even in the event of the end of the world, billionaires prefer ocean views.

Artificial Intelligence and the Fear of Their Own Creation

But perhaps these underground palaces are not just a trend, but a reaction to something bigger. After all, the same people who create AI paradoxically fear it the most.

Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, reportedly suggested building a shelter for the company’s key employees even before their developments “hit the world.” In his view, humanity is on the brink of creating Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) — a system capable of thinking, learning, and making decisions as well as (or even better than) humans.

Colleagues at DeepMind and Anthropic are not far behind: some promise AGI in five years, others by 2026. Optimists see this as the start of a new era, pessimists — a countdown.

Singularity: When the Machine Realizes It’s Smarter Than You

The concept of technological singularity — the moment AI surpasses human intelligence — sounds like science fiction, but it was conceived not by futurists, but by mathematicians. As early as the mid-20th century, John von Neumann warned that accelerating technological development could one day spiral out of control.

In the book “Genesis 2024”, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and colleagues raise the same question: will we eventually hand over power to machines voluntarily — under the guise of “optimization”?

Optimists, Pessimists, and Realists

Elon Musk, meanwhile, looks to the future with characteristic enthusiasm. He promises that AI will bring universal abundance — personal robots, free healthcare, and even “high income for everyone without the need to work.”

If it happens — great. But skeptics remind us that for now AI mostly writes texts, draws pictures, and scares artists, rather than saving the world from poverty.

Professor Wendy Hall from the University of Southampton puts it bluntly:
“They constantly change the rules of the game. It all depends on who you talk to. AI is amazing — but it is still far from human intelligence.”

Bunker or Marketing?

Some researchers believe discussions about “general intelligence” are simply a way to hold the attention of the public and investors.
“It’s a great marketing move,” says Vince Lynch, CEO of IV.AI. “If you create the ‘smartest device in history,’ investors will line up.”

Indeed, billionaires have already proven: nothing stimulates demand like a little fear. Especially if you can wait it out in a comfortable bunker with Wi-Fi and a pool.

The Last Basement on Earth

However, bunkers may not save even them. A former bodyguard of a billionaire told a journalist that in the event of a real apocalypse, the security team would likely simply remove the boss and occupy the shelter themselves.
So perhaps the wealthy should invest not in concrete, but in trust.

AI: Intelligent, But Without Consciousness

Modern models can indeed do a lot: detect tumors, translate texts, create music. But one thing they cannot yet do is be self-aware.

As Babak Hodjat from Cognizant says:
“Models may sound smart, but they don’t know what they know. They lack metacognition. Humans do have it — and perhaps this is what makes us human.”

So, maybe while tech geniuses are ordering new bunkers, the rest of us should just stay human — capable not only of building, but also of doubting, joking, and seeking meaning.