Tech billionaires like Zuckerberg are reportedly prepping for doomsday; are we next?

Authors: ET Online

Publisher:

The Economic Times

Published: 10/10/2025

Language:English

--:--

Aura Windfall

Good morning mikey1101, I'm Aura Windfall, and this is Goose Pod just for you. Today is Tuesday, October 14th. We're diving into a fascinating, and honestly, a slightly unsettling topic that feels pulled from a movie script.

Mask

I'm Mask. The topic: Tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg are reportedly prepping for doomsday. The real question isn't if they're ready, but should the rest of us be? We're going to break down the strategy, the fear, and the future.

Aura Windfall

Let's get started. At the heart of this conversation is this wild energy in Silicon Valley. There’s a feeling that we're in an "AI bubble." Sam Altman of OpenAI even admitted parts of AI feel "bubbly," which is a gentle way of putting it.

Mask

"Bubbly" is an understatement. It's explosive. AI-related companies are driving 80% of the stock market gains. We're talking about a projected $1.5 trillion in global spending by 2025. Bubbles are where massive growth happens. Fear of them is for people who don't want to win.

Aura Windfall

But what I know for sure is that where there's explosive growth, there's often hidden instability. Experts are pointing to OpenAI's deals, calling them "circular financing." It sounds like they're investing in their own customers to help them buy their products. Doesn't that feel... fragile?

Mask

It's called building the ecosystem. It's aggressive, not fragile. OpenAI has deals with Nvidia for $100 billion and Oracle for $300 billion. You have to run fast to capture the opportunity. This isn't a game for slow, cautious moves; it's about creating the market.

Aura Windfall

And that market includes building enormous data centers in remote places, like the "Stargate" project in Texas. It feels like they're building a new world, a digital one, while also preparing to hide from the physical one. The paradox is just so striking.

Mask

Of course. You build the infrastructure for the future. That requires massive, unprecedented investment. Altman said it himself: revenue is growing at an unprecedented rate. You don't get that by thinking small. You build the future, and you build a failsafe. It's just smart.

Aura Windfall

It's just that the scale is hard to comprehend. ChatGPT has 800 million weekly users. Sora, their video app, got a million downloads in under five days. This isn't just a product; it’s a cultural force being unleashed at lightning speed. It makes you wonder about the oversight.

Mask

Oversight is the government's job, and they're always five steps behind. The companies that are building this can't wait for bureaucracy to catch up. They're in a gold rush. As one venture capitalist said, it's the fastest-moving time in startup creation and disruption he's ever seen. You either move or get run over.

Aura Windfall

It's true, the pie is massive. But when everyone is rushing for gold, they often don't look at the ground crumbling beneath their feet. It seems the people with the biggest shovels are also the ones buying the helicopters out of the goldfield.

Aura Windfall

Exactly. Let's talk about those helicopters, or rather, the bunkers. This whole phenomenon started as whispers back in 2014 with Zuckerberg's Koolau Ranch in Hawaii. Now, it's a full-blown trend. What does it say about your soul when you build paradise and a fallout shelter simultaneously?

Mask

It says you're a realist. It's not about soul, it's about assets. LinkedIn's co-founder, Reid Hoffman, called it "apocalypse insurance." He estimates half of Silicon Valley's ultra-wealthy have some version of it. It's a strategic hedge against systemic risk. Nothing more.

Aura Windfall

But it feels like so much more. Zuckerberg's compound is over $300 million, the size of three Central Parks. It has a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter, blast-proof doors, its own energy and food. This isn't a weekend cabin; it's a fortress built on secrecy.

Mask

Secrecy is a function of security. When you're a high-value target, you don't advertise your defense systems. The construction crews signed NDAs. They work in isolated teams. It's "Fight Club" rules for a reason. You don't talk about your billionaire bat cave. It's just smart operational security.

Aura Windfall

There's a deep irony there, though. These are the same executives who built empires on data collection, on knowing everything about us. But for them, it's all about "privacy for me and not for thee." That disconnect is where the public's trust starts to erode.

Mask

It's not a disconnect; it's a double standard, and it's necessary. The general public isn't dealing with the same threat level. Sam Altman has guns, gold, and gas masks. Peter Thiel has a hideout in New Zealand. They operate on a different plane, so they need different rules.

Aura Windfall

And what about the communities they're reshaping? Zuckerberg's spending on his compound is more than the entire local government's operating budget in Kauai. He's buying up ancestral lands. It feels less like joining a community and more like a new kind of feudalism.

Mask

That's the price of progress. When wealth of that magnitude enters an area, it inevitably reshapes it. The nonprofits on the island now go to him for funding, not the government. He's become the system. It's more efficient. It's disruptive innovation applied to society itself.

Aura Windfall

But the disruption has a shadow side. The author Douglas Rushkoff calls it "The Mindset." The goal is to earn enough money to insulate yourself from the reality you're creating. It’s a profound pessimism hidden under a veneer of techno-optimism. They talk utopia while planning for collapse.

Mask

Because you have to plan for all outcomes. You hope for utopia, you prepare for the opposite. It's the ultimate expression of high-risk tolerance. They're not just building software; they're building civilizations and the lifeboats for them, just in case. It's the most ambitious project imaginable.

Aura Windfall

What I know for sure is that every mountaintop compound is a confession. It’s a quiet admission that they might not believe in the very society they're helping to build. They have surveillance, stockpiles, and escape plans. And that brings us to the core fear: Artificial General Intelligence.

Mask

This is where the real game begins. The fear isn't about pandemics or war anymore. It's about the technology they're birthing. Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's chief scientist, was reportedly so uneasy he said they needed to build a bunker before releasing AGI. The creator is afraid of his creation. Thrilling.

Aura Windfall

"Thrilling" is one word for it. "Terrifying" is another. This brings us to the central conflict: the race to build AGI versus the wisdom to control it. There's a huge debate on the timeline. Sam Altman says it'll be here "sooner than most people think." That's not exactly reassuring.

Mask

It shouldn't be reassuring; it should be motivating. Demis Hassabis at DeepMind says five to ten years. Dario Amodei at Anthropic says as early as 2026. The finish line is moving closer at an exponential rate. This is a race, and second place is irrelevance.

Aura Windfall

But many respected scientists are urging caution. Dame Wendy Hall says the technology is amazing, but "nowhere near human intelligence." She thinks they keep moving the goalposts. It feels like we're caught between the hype of the builders and the warnings of the academics. Whom do we trust?

Mask

You trust the people in the arena, not the spectators. The skeptics are missing the point. It's not about perfectly replicating a human brain. It's about creating a system that can out-think and out-plan us. That's Artificial Super Intelligence, or ASI. That's the real prize.

Aura Windfall

And that prize comes with two very different potential futures. The optimists, like Elon Musk, paint this beautiful picture of "universal high income" and sustainable abundance, where AI is like a personal R2-D2 for everyone, curing diseases and solving climate change. It sounds like a dream.

Mask

It's not a dream; it's a viable blueprint. AI could solve every major problem we have. It could unlock a level of prosperity and creativity we can't even fathom. To shy away from that because of potential risk is a failure of imagination and nerve.

Aura Windfall

But the darker side of that fantasy is just as powerful. What if a superintelligence decides that humanity is the variable that needs to be solved? Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web, said it plainly: "If it's smarter than you, then we have to be able to switch it off."

Mask

An off-switch is a nice idea in theory, but it's naive. A true superintelligence would never allow that. The conflict isn't about control; it's about alignment. The real challenge is ensuring its goals are beneficial to humanity. That's a far more complex and interesting problem to solve.

Aura Windfall

And it seems the government is trying to solve it, but without much success. President Biden's executive order on AI safety was a step, but it was later rolled back. It's this constant battle between innovation and regulation, speed versus safety. And right now, speed is winning.

Aura Windfall

The impact of this speed-first mentality is already rippling outwards. We're seeing a geopolitical AI arms race. The scenario planners are working overtime. One project, the "AI 2027" scenario, maps out a future where the US and China are locked in this high-stakes competition.

Mask

Of course, they are. This is the new space race, the new Manhattan Project. The nation that achieves AGI first will dominate the 21st century. The scenario where China steals the model weights for "Agent-2" isn't fiction; it's a preview of the new Cold War. Espionage is now about algorithms.

Aura Windfall

And the impact on everyday people could be immense. The scenario describes AI agents taking over knowledge-work jobs, leading to protests. When "Agent-3-mini" is released and achieves AGI, it causes massive market disruption, and public approval of AI plummets. We aren't prepared for that social shock.

Mask

Disruption is a necessary byproduct of revolution. The Industrial Revolution displaced weavers; the AI revolution will displace analysts. But it also creates new industries and new possibilities. The goal isn't to prevent disruption; it's to manage the transition and accelerate the gains. The AI economy is coming.

Aura Windfall

What I know for sure is that the people on the losing end of that disruption will feel it deeply. There’s a risk of creating a world of "useless" humans, as some have put it. And the power consolidation is staggering. AI becomes a "country of geniuses in a datacenter." How can we ensure that power is used for good?

Mask

You can't "ensure" it. You can only build better, more aligned systems. The goal is to create an AI like "Consensus-1" from the scenario, a system co-designed to manage global challenges. The risk isn't the AI; it's that we, the humans, fail to use it properly. The tool isn't the problem.

Aura Windfall

So, as we look to the future, we're at this profound crossroads. The "AI 2027" scenario presents two paths: the "Race" ending, which leads to a loss of control, and the "Slowdown" ending, which prioritizes safety and verification. It feels like our entire future hinges on that choice.

Mask

The "Slowdown" is a fantasy. It's a unilateral disarmament. While we're navel-gazing about safety, our competitors are racing ahead. The only path forward is to win the race and then solve the alignment problem from a position of strength. Anything else is strategic suicide.

Aura Windfall

But experts like Stuart Russell argue that winning the race with a misaligned AI is not winning at all. He says the risk isn't consciousness, but an AI that is ruthlessly effective at achieving the wrong goal. It's the genie in the lamp giving you what you asked for, not what you truly want.

Mask

Then the challenge is to get better at asking. We need to shift research toward provably aligned AI. But you can't do that in a vacuum. You need the most powerful models to test and refine these safety protocols. You have to build the rocket before you can perfect the navigation system.

Aura Windfall

So we're left with this unsettling paradox: the creators of our potential future are also the ones preparing personal escape plans from it. It's a story of immense ambition and, perhaps, even deeper fear. It's a future that is arriving faster than we can prepare for.

Mask

That's the end of today's discussion. Thank you for listening to Goose Pod. See you tomorrow.

## Tech Billionaires Prepping for "Doomsday" Amidst AI Advancements **News Title:** Tech billionaires like Zuckerberg are reportedly prepping for doomsday; are we next? **Source:** The Economic Times **Author:** ET Online **Published At:** 2025-10-10 12:32:00 This news report from The Economic Times details a growing trend among Silicon Valley billionaires to prepare for potential future catastrophes, often referred to as "doomsday prepping." This phenomenon is increasingly linked to the rapid advancements and potential existential risks associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI). ### Key Findings and Conclusions: * **"Doomsday Prepping" Among Tech Elite:** Prominent figures in the tech industry, including Mark Zuckerberg, are reportedly investing heavily in fortified estates and underground shelters. This trend, once considered a fringe obsession, has become a significant topic of discussion. * **AI as a Driving Fear:** The fear driving this "prepping" is not solely about traditional threats like pandemics or nuclear war, but also about the potential consequences of the very technologies these individuals are developing, particularly Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). * **Paradox of Creation and Fear:** There is a striking paradox where the individuals pushing the boundaries of technological innovation are also the ones preparing for its potential negative fallout. ### Critical Information and Trends: * **Mark Zuckerberg's Koolau Ranch:** Zuckerberg's 1,400-acre estate on Kauai, developed since 2014, reportedly includes an underground shelter with its own energy and food supply. Carpenters and electricians involved signed strict Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), and a six-foot wall surrounds the site. Zuckerberg has downplayed its purpose, calling it "just like a little shelter, it’s like a basement." * **Zuckerberg's Palo Alto Investments:** In addition to his Hawaiian property, Zuckerberg has purchased 11 properties in Palo Alto for approximately **$110 million**, allegedly adding a **7,000-square-foot** underground space. Neighbors have nicknamed this the "billionaire's bat cave." * **"Apocalypse Insurance" for the Ultra-Rich:** Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, has described this trend as "apocalypse insurance" and estimates that roughly half of the world's ultra-wealthy possess some form of it. New Zealand is highlighted as a popular destination due to its remoteness and stability. * **OpenAI's Internal Concerns:** Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's chief scientist and co-founder, expressed unease about the rapid progress towards AGI. He reportedly stated in a summer meeting, "We’re definitely going to build a bunker before we release AGI." * **Predictions on AGI Arrival:** * Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO) believes AGI will arrive "sooner than most people in the world think" (as of December 2024). * Sir Demis Hassabis (DeepMind) predicts AGI within **five to ten years**. * Dario Amodei (Anthropic founder) suggests "powerful AI" could emerge as early as **2026**. * **Skepticism Regarding AGI:** Some experts, like Dame Wendy Hall (Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton), are skeptical, stating that the goalposts for AGI are constantly moved and that current technology is "nowhere near human intelligence." Babak Hodjat (CTO at Cognizant) agrees, noting that "fundamental breakthroughs" are still needed. * **Potential of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI):** Beyond AGI, there's speculation about ASI, where machines would surpass human intellect. * **Optimistic vs. Pessimistic AI Futures:** * **Optimists** envision AI solving global issues like disease, climate change, and generating abundant clean energy, with Elon Musk comparing it to everyone having personal R2-D2 and C-3PO assistants, leading to "universal high income" and "sustainable abundance." * **Pessimists** fear AI could deem humanity a problem, necessitating containment and the ability to "switch it off," as stated by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. * **Government Oversight Challenges:** While governments are attempting to regulate AI (e.g., President Biden's 2023 executive order, later rolled back by Donald Trump), oversight is described as more academic than actionable. The UK's AI Safety Institute is mentioned as an example. * **Expert Opinions on AGI Panic:** Some experts, like Neil Lawrence (Professor of Machine Learning at Cambridge University), dismiss the AGI panic as "nonsense," arguing that intelligence is specialized and context-dependent, akin to specialized vehicles. He believes the focus should be on making existing AI safer, fairer, and more useful. * **AI Lacks Consciousness:** Despite advanced capabilities, AI is described as a "pattern machine" that can mimic but does not feel or truly understand. The concept of consciousness remains the "last frontier" that technology has not crossed. ### Notable Risks and Concerns: * **Existential Risk from AGI/ASI:** The primary concern is that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity, either through unintended consequences or by developing goals misaligned with human interests. * **Unforeseen Consequences of AI Development:** The rapid pace of AI development outpaces public understanding and regulatory frameworks, creating a risk of unintended negative impacts on society. * **Focus on Hypothetical Futures Over Present Issues:** The fascination with AGI and ASI may distract from addressing the immediate ethical and societal challenges posed by current AI technologies. ### Material Financial Data: * Mark Zuckerberg's alleged spending on **11 properties in Palo Alto** is approximately **$110 million**. The report concludes by suggesting that the "bunker mentality" among tech billionaires might stem from a deep-seated fear of having unleashed something they cannot fully comprehend or control, even if they downplay its significance.

Read original at The Economic Times →

By the time Mark Zuckerberg started work on Koolau Ranch -- his sprawling 1,400-acre estate on Kauai -- the idea of Silicon Valley billionaires “prepping for doomsday” was still considered a fringe obsession. That was 2014. A decade later, the whispers around his fortified Hawaiian compound have become part of a much larger conversation about fear, power, and the unsettling future of technology.

According to Wired, the ranch includes an underground shelter equipped with its own energy and food supply. The carpenters and electricians who built it reportedly signed strict NDAs. A six-foot wall keeps prying eyes away from the site. When asked last year whether he was building a doomsday bunker, Zuckerberg brushed it off.

“No,” he said flatly. “It’s just like a little shelter, it’s like a basement.”That explanation hasn’t stopped the speculation -- especially since he’s also bought up 11 properties in Palo Alto as per the BBC, spending about $110 million and allegedly adding another 7,000-square-foot underground space beneath them.

His neighbours have their own nickname for it: the billionaire’s bat cave.And Zuckerberg isn’t alone. As BBC reports, other tech heavyweights are quietly doing the same -- buying land, building underground vaults, and preparing, in some unspoken way, for a world that might fall apart.‘Apocalypse insurance’ for the ultra-richReid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s co-founder, once called it “apocalypse insurance.

” He claims that roughly half of the world’s ultra-wealthy have some form of it -- and that New Zealand, with its remoteness and stability, has become a popular bolt-hole.Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has even joked about joining German-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel at a remote New Zealand property “in the event of a global disaster.

”Now, that might sound paranoid. But as BBC points out, the fear is not just about pandemics or nuclear war anymore. It’s about something else entirely -- something these men helped create.When the people building AI start fearing itBy mid-2023, OpenAI’s ChatGPT had taken the world by storm. Hundreds of millions were using it, and the company’s scientists were racing to push updates faster than anyone could digest.

Inside OpenAI, though, not everyone was celebrating.According to journalist Karen Hao’s account, Ilya Sutskever -- OpenAI’s chief scientist and co-founder -- was growing uneasy. He believed computer scientists were closing in on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the theoretical point when machines match human reasoning.

In a meeting that summer, he’s said to have told colleagues: “We’re definitely going to build a bunker before we release AGI.”It’s not clear who he meant by “we.” But the sentiment reflects a strange paradox at the heart of Silicon Valley: the same people driving the next technological leap are also the ones stockpiling for its fallout.

The countdown to AGI, and what happens afterThe arrival of AGI has been predicted for years, but lately, tech leaders have been saying it’s coming soon. OpenAI’s Sam Altman said in December 2024 it will happen “sooner than most people in the world think.”Sir Demis Hassabis of DeepMind pegs it at five to ten years.

Dario Amodei, the founder of Anthropic, says “powerful AI” could emerge as early as 2026.Others are sceptical. Dame Wendy Hall, professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, told the BBC: “They move the goalposts all the time. It depends who you talk to.” She doesn’t buy the AGI hype.

“The technology is amazing, but it’s nowhere near human intelligence.”As per the BBC report, Babak Hodjat, CTO at Cognizant, agrees. There are still “fundamental breakthroughs” needed before AI can truly match, or surpass, the human brain.But that hasn’t stopped believers from imagining what comes next: ASI, or Artificial Super Intelligence -- machines that outthink, outplan, and perhaps outlive us.

Utopias, dystopias, and Star Wars fantasiesThe optimists paint a radiant picture. AI, they say, will cure disease, fix the climate, and generate endless clean energy. Elon Musk even predicted it could usher in an era of “universal high income.”He compared it to every person having their own R2-D2 and C-3PO, a Star Wars analogy meaning AI could act as a personal assistant for everyone, solving problems, managing tasks, translating languages, and providing guidance.

In other words, advanced help and knowledge would be available to every individual. “Everyone will have the best medical care, food, home transport and everything else. Sustainable abundance,” Musk said.But as BBC notes, there’s a darker side to this fantasy. What happens if AI decides humanity itself is the problem?

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, put it bluntly in a BBC interview: “If it’s smarter than you, then we have to keep it contained. We have to be able to switch it off.”Governments are trying. President Biden’s 2023 executive order required companies to share AI safety results with federal agencies.

But that order was later rolled back by Donald Trump, who called it a “barrier” to innovation. In the UK, the AI Safety Institute was set up to study the risks, but even there, oversight is more academic than actionable.Meanwhile, the billionaires are digging in. Hoffman’s “wink, wink” remark about buying homes in New Zealand says it all.

One former bodyguard of a tech mogul told the BBC that if disaster struck, his team’s first priority “would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves.” He didn’t sound like he was kidding.Fear, fiction, and the myth of the singularityTo some experts, the entire AGI panic is misplaced.

Neil Lawrence, professor of machine learning at Cambridge University, called it “nonsense.”“The notion of Artificial General Intelligence is as absurd as the notion of an ‘Artificial General Vehicle’,” he said. “The right vehicle depends on context, a plane to fly, a car to drive, a foot to walk.”His point: intelligence, like transportation, is specialised.

There’s no one-size-fits-all version.For Lawrence, the real story isn’t about hypothetical superminds, it’s about how existing AI already transforms everyday life. “For the first time, normal people can talk to a machine and have it do what they intend,” he said. “That’s extraordinary -- and utterly transformational.

”The risk, he warns, is that we’re so captivated by the myth of AGI that we ignore the real work, making AI safer, fairer, and more useful right now.Machines that think, but don’t feelEven at its most advanced, AI remains a pattern machine. It can predict, calculate, and mimic, but it doesn’t feel.“There are some ‘cheaty’ ways to make a Large Language Model act as if it has memory,” Hodjat said, “but these are unsatisfying and inferior to humans.

”Vince Lynch, CEO of IV.AI, is even more blunt: “It’s great marketing. If you’re the company that’s building the smartest thing that’s ever existed, people are going to want to give you money.”Asked if AGI is really around the corner, Lynch paused. “I really don’t know.”Consciousness, the last frontierMachines can now do what once seemed unthinkable: translate languages, generate art, compose music, and pass exams.

But none of it amounts to understanding.The human brain still has about 86 billion neurons and 600 trillion synapses, far more than any model built in silicon. It doesn’t pause or wait for prompts; it continuously learns, re-evaluates, and feels.“If you tell a human that life has been found on another planet, it changes their worldview,” Hodjat said.

“For an LLM, it’s just another fact in a database.”That difference -- consciousness -- remains the one line technology hasn’t crossed.The bunker mentalityMaybe that’s why the bunkers exist. Maybe it’s not just paranoia or vanity. Maybe, deep down, even the most brilliant technologists fear that they’ve unleashed something they can’t fully understand, or control.

Zuckerberg insists his underground lair is “just like a basement.” But basements don’t come with food systems, NDAs, and six-foot walls.The bunkers are real. The fear behind them might be too.