Tech billionaires are prepping for doomsday and buying luxury bunkers, according to a new tell-all book.
Douglas Rushkoff detailed his experience chatting with five of the richest men in the world about how to prepare for an apocalypse.
Companies like Vivos and Rising S offer luxury shelters with amenities like pools and horse stables.
Tech billionaires are building luxury doomsday bunkers, according to a tell-all book by Douglas Rushkoff.Vivos installing a shelter
Courtesy of Vivos
Rushkoff, who often writes about the future of technology and is known for his association with early cyberpunk culture, said he was invited to a remote resort to talk with five of the world’s wealthiest men about the future of the planet. (Rushkoff did not specify who spoke to him at the resort, but said at least two of the men were billionaires.)
At the event, the City University of New York professor said he was repeatedly asked about the best ways to survive climate change or societal collapse, as the executives detailed their plans to build underground bunkers and avoid what they called “The Event.”
Source: The Guardian, “Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires”
“The CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked, ‘How do I maintain authority over my security force after ‘The Event?'” Rushkoff wrote.A Vivos bunker
Courtesy of Vivos
“The Event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.”
Source: The Guardian
In a post for The Guardian, Rushkoff highlighted some of the survival companies the ultra-wealthy are employing to build their escape, including Vivos and Rising S Company.Rising S Company workers installing a shelter
Courtesy of Rising S Company
Vivos and Rising S Company declined to provide details to Insider on specific clients or projects they’ve worked on, citing privacy concerns.
Source: The Guardian
Vivos sells shelters that are essentially luxury underground apartments.
Vivos
Source: Vivos
Vivos’ shelters are built into converted Cold War facilities and missile silos around the world.Men work on steel shelters.
Courtesy of Vivos
Source: Vivos
The sites operate as complexes, where individuals can gather in common areas, as well as maintain their own private space.Vivos bunkers in a field
Courtesy of Vivos
Source: Vivos
One of Vivos’ most luxurious site — Europa One — is located in Germany and provides individual families with over 2,500 square feet of living.
Courtesy of Vivos
Source: Vivos
The company advertises the location as the world’s largest private shelter.
© Copyright Terravivos.com
Source: Vivos
It will have numerous amenities and operate almost as its own village with a bar, chapel, pools, and more.A pub in Europa One.
Terravivos.com
Source: Vivos
Residents will also get their own private luxury accommodations.Living quarters in Europa one.
© Copyright Terravivos.com
Source: Vivos
The site is designed to cater to the mental health of residents and attempts to simulate natural light in the underground shelter.A bedroom in Europa One.
Terravivos.com
Source: Vivos
The location will also have a movie theater, garden, and wine vault.
Terravivos.com
Source: Vivos
The site includes guard buildings lining the premises for security — an issue Rushkoff said was a major cause for concern for the billionaires he spoke with.
© Copyright Terravivos.com
Source: Vivos, The Guardian
Despite the appeal of the luxury facilities, Rushkoff said he doubted the sites would be able to survive a true apocalypse.
Terravivos.com
“The probability of a fortified bunker actually protecting its occupants from the reality of, well, reality, is very slim. For one, the closed ecosystems of underground facilities are preposterously brittle,” Rushkoff wrote in The Guardian. “Just the known unknowns are enough to dash any reasonable hope of survival.”
Source: The Guardian
Vivos also offers more modest accommodations at a site in South Dakota.A Vivos kitchen
Courtesy of Vivos
Source: Vivos
Vivos told Insider its shelters are designed to allow residents to operate for a minimum of one year without having to return to the outside world. It said its customers are not “‘the elite 1%,’ but rather well-educated, average people with a keen awareness of the current global events.”A Vivos shelter
Courtesy of Vivos
The company has said it saw a surge of interest in its shelters at the onset of the pandemic as well as Russia’s attack on Ukraine.A Vivos bunk room
Courtesy of Vivos
Source: Insider
Online, Vivos application prices start at $35,000 per person with “significant discounts” available for individuals with key survival skills.
Terravivos.com
Source: Vivos
Rising S prices start at $40,000. But, its luxury series starts at about $3.78 million and the company’s most expensive shelter costs about $14 million, the company told Insider.Rising S bunker
Courtesy of Rising S
Unlike Vivos, Rising S builds its shelters individually into customers’ existing properties.A Rising S bunker
Courtesy of Rising S
Source: Rising S Company
The company said it often customizes its shelters for luxury clients, and has built anything from operating rooms to horse stables, shooting ranges, basketball courts, and crypto mining rooms into its shelters.A medical facility on a Rising S bunker.
Courtesy of Rising S
Ultimately, Rushkoff said the idea behind billionaires seeking an escape hatch indicates a larger trend, and pointed to Elon Musk looking to colonize Mars.A Rising S bunker
Courtesy of Rising S
“It’s as if they want to build a car that goes fast enough to escape from its own exhaust,” he wrote in The Guardian. “Never before have our society’s most powerful players assumed that the primary impact of their own conquests would be to render the world itself unlivable for everyone else.”
Source: The Guardian
