Mark Zuckerberg's Hawaii bunker on controversial $100m compound not a ‘doomsday bunker’: Just a ‘little shelter’

After Mark Zuckerberg's Hawaii empire expansion was blasted as controversial, he downplayed the underground bunker on his $100 million compound.

Mark Zuckerberg has shut down the heavy speculation that his underground bunker in Hawaii is more than he believes it to be. As far as his perception of it stands, it’s nothing more than a “basement.”

According to Wired, people in Kauai, Hawaii, have largely perceived Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan empire's expansion on the island as highly controversial. (Photo credit: AP)

According to Wired’s 2023 investigation into the property, it features 11 treehouses connected by rope bridges and several guest houses. The compound also houses the said underground bunker which opens with a concrete-filled metal door.

Mark Zuckerberg's controversial $100m Hawaii compound housing underground bunker

The outlet also reported two mansions as the estate's highlight pieces. At one point, they will feature a “gym, pools, sauna, hot tub, cold plunge, and tennis court.” Zuckerberg’s $100 million “top-secret” Hawaii compound has established a controversial presence due to its apparent impact on the island’s indigenous groups’ interaction with their surroundings. Known as Koolau Ranch, the sprawling 1,400-acre estate, the ambitious real estate expansion has been described as the “fight club” by a former contract employee because “We don’t talk about fight club.”

Mark Zuckerberg on his infamous bunker

Solely focussing on the 5,000-square-foot underground shelter, Wired revealed last year that it features a living space, a mechanical room and an escape hatch. Despite how it sounds, the Meta boss slammed all implications of it being a “doomsday bunker.”

The prior investigation evidently sounded the alarm against Zuckerberg, given how the compound is purportedly heavily shrouded in secrecy with staffers attached to the estate bound by NDAs. Nonetheless, he downplayed his bunker as merely a “little shelter,” a basement or, in other cases, a refuse from hurricanes.

During a recent interview with The Circuit’s Emily Chang, the Meta leader said, “I think the whole things got blown out of proportion, as if the whole ranch was some kind of, like, doomsday bunker.”

“It’s not true,” he added.

The property and the heavy influx of workers associated with it have transformed the islandscape, ruffling the locals’ feathers the wrong way. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan's expansion of the Kauai empire incited people's wrath, as a petition titled “Stop Mark Zuckerberg from colonising Kauai” received more than a hundred signatures uniting against the couple. To ensure a smoother transition, the pair's local charity, Chan Zuckerberg Kauai Community Fund, has given more than $20 million to various Kauai nonprofits since 2018.