How Tech Leaders Prep for Doomsday, From Bunkers to Guns

In instances of geopolitical chaos, the typical individual may watch a meditation video or top off on canned items. The wealthiest amongst us, nevertheless, may flip to a luxury underground bunker as a substitute.

“When a warfare breaks out, or when America bombs Iran, it does trigger a spike in our enterprise,” Ron Hubbard, founder and CEO of Atlas Survival Shelters, informed Enterprise Insider in July.

This month, Hubbard mentioned he noticed a “massive spike” in curiosity from individuals in the Middle East, and particularly the UAE, after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. He mentioned he additionally noticed a average enterprise bump within the US as for the standard consumer request: a spot to guard their household.

Larry Corridor, the proprietor of luxurious bunker firm Survival Apartment, informed Enterprise Insider again in July that he is seen elevated curiosity throughout geopolitical conflicts.

Hubbard mentioned it is secure to imagine that almost all billionaires have some kind of shelter, although comparatively few have extraordinarily extravagant bunkers that price tens of tens of millions of {dollars}. Corridor mentioned he is constructed a bunker complicated with a swimming pool, and others have included a capturing vary or bowling alley. Over the summer season, he mentioned he was negotiating bunker gross sales between $1 million and $2 million.

As Corridor sees it, bunkers have turn into a “new standing image of the elite” within the post-pandemic period, and are now not as taboo as they was once.

Among the nation’s largest tech names have hopped on the prepper pattern within the final decade, shopping for underground shelters and collections of weapons.

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman told the New Yorker in 2017 that he thinks greater than half of his Silicon Valley billionaire friends have purchased some kind of end-of-world hideout.

Listed below are a number of the tech millionaires and billionaires who’ve invested in doomsday planning.

Bunkers — or related tunnels or shelters

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t confirmed stories that he has a survival bunker, however mentioned on an episode of the podcast “This Previous Weekend w/ Theo Von” in 2025 that he has an “underground tunnel” at his ranch in Hawaii.

In 2023, Wired reported that Zuckerberg was constructing a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter on the ranch. A 12 months later, native information outlet Hawaii Information Now reported that county planning paperwork included a “storm shelter” measuring virtually 4,500 sq. ft. Wired reported in July 2025 that, based on planning paperwork, Zuckerberg purchased 962 acres of land throughout from the prevailing compound and added extra buildings.

The Meta CEO downplayed the preliminary bunker stories throughout an interview with Bloomberg in December, evaluating the area to “a basement.”

“There’s only a bunch of cupboard space and like, I do not know, no matter you wish to name it, a hurricane shelter or no matter,” he mentioned. “I feel it bought blown out of proportion as if the entire ranch was some sort of Doomsday bunker, which is simply not true.”

A consultant for Zuckerberg directed BI to his feedback to Bloomberg.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has additionally denied having a bunker, saying as a substitute that he has “bolstered basements” when Von, the podcaster, requested whether or not he had a hideout.

“I’ve underground, concrete, heavy, bolstered basements, however I haven’t got something I’d name a…” Altman began to say, earlier than Von reduce him off, laughing and saying that it seemed like a bunker. Von described a bunker as “a spot you possibly can cover when all of it goes off,” and Altman repeated that he did not but have what he would contemplate a bunker.

“However it has been on my thoughts, not due to AI, however simply because persons are dropping bombs on the planet once more,” Altman mentioned.

He did not share particulars of his current “structures” at a WSJ Tech Dwell occasion in 2023, both, however did notice that none of them could be useful if synthetic intelligence “goes flawed.” He additionally informed the New Yorker in 2016 that he has a plot of land in Huge Sur, California, that he may fly to if needed.

PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel tried to construct a 10-bedroom compound in New Zealand, however the native authorities rejected his plans after environmentalists complained. Some suspected that elements of the property had been meant to be a doomsday bunker.

Corridor informed Enterprise Insider that he is been “flabbergasted” by a number of the reported shelter places, since California and New Zealand are close to energetic tectonic plate boundaries.

“They’re the 2 locations you do not wish to be constructing bunkers, and but allegedly these billionaires are constructing in these two locations,” he mentioned.

Representatives for Altman and Thiel didn’t reply to Enterprise Insider’s request for remark.

Different preparations embrace weapons and eye surgical procedure

Some go for totally different doomsday preparations. Altman additionally beforehand informed the New Yorker that he has “weapons, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, fuel masks from the Israeli Protection Power.”

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman informed the New Yorker he is purchased weapons, ammo, and bikes. And he is taken it one step additional — he mentioned that in 2015, he bought laser eye surgical procedure to hopefully higher his probabilities of survival.

Curiosity in doomsday-esque supplies does not simply lengthen to those that are making ready for the top of the world.

Palmer Luckey, the founding father of Oculus and Anduril, hasn’t referred to himself as a prepper however he owns a large collection of older military-grade vehicles. He mentioned on an episode of Bloomberg’s “The Circuit” that he additionally owns decommissioned missile silos, a few of which lengthen underground, the place he shops what he says is the world’s largest online game assortment.

“I put that in considered one of my missile bases, 200 ft underground,” Luckey informed Bloomberg’s Emily Chang. Representatives for Luckey and Huffman didn’t reply to Enterprise Insider’s request for remark.

Corridor mentioned that he thinks the affiliation with outstanding tech leaders has helped his enterprise.

“Lots of people prefer to reside vicariously by what different folks do,” he mentioned.