Back in the 2010s, a deal to buy farmland in New Zealand crossed my desk. This was a surprise. Farming wasn’t part of our investment mandate, let alone farming on the other side of the world.

But it became clear that this wasn’t a Kiwi sheep play. It was a Silicon Valley billionaire play. Tech titans were snapping up land to use as bolt holes if the apocalypse hit.

At the time, it felt outlandish, and we passed on the deal.

Fast forward to today and billionaire bolt holes and wealthy prepping have gone mainstream.

You’d expect tech billionaires and venture capitalists to be the ultimate optimists.

But many are surreptitiously preparing for the worst. Their biggest fear isn’t a zombie apocalypse. It’s the slow breakdown of the basic assumptions holding society together: trust in money, institutions, and each other.

They’re prepping, and not in the Mad Max, dig-a-hole-and-fill-it-with-beans way.

This is a luxury survival plan: private islands, vast estates, missile silos turned condos, and second passports with helipads on standby.

Wealthy preppers are not fringe thinkers. They’re insiders: tech billionaires, hedge fund managers, and VCs. People who see the system from the inside and worry it’s built on sand.

Preppers talk about “the event”, but what are they specifically worried about?

Civil unrest, climate change and weather events, pandemics, nuclear war, global financial collapse, a rogue AI turning on humanity.

We spoke to Larry Hall, owner of Survival Condo Projects about why people are investing in bunkers. “Most people express concerns about the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Iran and Israel situation in the Middle East, and the threat of China invading Taiwan. And then there’s increased worries about another pandemic and terrorism, all reasons they are interested in having a bunker.”

For some, it’s a side hobby: buy a little Bitcoin, pick up a second home, sketch out an escape route. For others, it’s a serious commitment.

Writing in The New Yorker, Evan Osnos described one investment manager who keeps a helicopter permanently gassed and ready. Tech investor Tim Chang says he and his wife keep go-bags prepped for their family.

Marvin Liao, formerly of Yahoo and 500 Startups, took a different route. He chose archery over guns, explaining, “I took classes,” realizing food and water alone wouldn’t cut it.

In 2022, The Guardian reported that Vivos, one of the largest bunker developers, saw a 300% surge in inquiries after Russia invaded Ukraine. Robert Vicino, Vivos’ founder, said, “People are realizing how fragile everything is. We had doctors, CEOs, people who never would have considered this calling us.”

Larry Hall identified the tipping point: “COVID. COVID was a wake up call to the world. Everyone could see with their own eyes that their perceived safety in the world could change in an instant. Then, as more and more restrictions were put on the people, they realized that their homes were not adequate for home schooling, exercise activities, working from home, or protecting them from a broad array of threats. That resulted in them looking at bunkers in a whole new light.”

The global safe havens of choice: New Zealand and Hawaii.

New Zealand has become the premium exit option. It is safe, stable, English-speaking, and critically, far away. Peter Thiel famously acquired citizenship after spending just twelve days there. Larry Page reportedly entered on a medevac flight during COVID when the borders were closed.

Bloomberg reported in 2023 that New Zealand farmland purchases by foreign buyers rose 35% compared to pre-pandemic averages. The Financial Times noted the trend accelerated after the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as investors sought places “immune from the chaos of Western democracies.”

In Hawaii, the appeal is different but just as strong. It’s U.S. soil:  no visas or foreign-ownership hurdles for many, yet it feels remote and insulated. Private compounds on the Big Island and Maui have become the “backup plan” for tech and finance elites, with convenient jet access from Silicon Valley.

Local brokers say interest spiked during COVID as billionaires realized Hawaii offered both luxury and plausible deniability: a tropical paradise that doubles as a bolt hole.

What drives this impulse? It’s partly paranoia, but it’s also cold calculation.

Former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong put it plainly to the New Yorker: “The odds of some kind of civilizational collapse are relatively low, but the downside is so severe that it makes sense to prepare. If you’re worth hundreds of millions of dollars and you spend one percent of your wealth to hedge the risk, it’s a logical investment.”

A 2022 survey by National Geographic and Morning Consult found that 15% of Americans earning over $500,000 had purchased some form of “disaster insurance” property since 2020. Among those under 45, the figure was nearly 25%.

Larry Hall told us that “the people who contact us come from all walks of life. Some are high or ultra high net worth individuals and others are doctors or other professionals. Most of our client have children and are concerned for their safety.”

And yet, there’s something unsettling about the scale of this quiet withdrawal. As civil trust erodes, the very people with the means to help repair it are instead planning their exits.

Hall dismisses this line of argument as “nonsense”.

“The governments of the World have spent trillions of dollars trying to improve people’s lives. The age old desires for power and money and competition for limited resources continue to drive people to make bad decisions. Singling out the bunker industry and suggesting that if that money was given to ‘who’ would stop the need for bunkers is nothing more than wishful thinking in my opinion.”

Larry Hall’s Survival Condo Project in Kansas, a repurposed nuclear missile silo, has become a $20 million subterranean palace. It houses twelve apartments, a pool, a climbing wall, and even simulated windows displaying video footage of pine forests or Central Park. Units sell for up to $3 million. Owners arrive by private jet or, in an emergency, armored truck convoys.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Larry told us: “I am working on another nuclear hardened facility that will be approximately 150,000 square feet of protected space, which is three times the size of the first silo conversion. We have consulted with investors from around the world and we continue to enhance our bunker designs.”

Details are protected by NDAs, but the market is clearly booming. And Hall isn’t alone. Strategic real estate firms now advise clients not just on sea views, but on proximity to stable governments and elevation safe from rising seas.

It’s tempting to dismiss all this as fringe paranoia. But these aren’t doomsday bloggers or zombie obsessives. They’re data-driven engineers, hedge fund quants, and early-stage investors. People who price risk for a living.

Their actions point to something deeper: they no longer believe they can count on continuity.

Today’s newsletter is supported by the Expat Money Online Summit. Put together by world-renowned expat consultant Mikkel Thorup, this free online event takes place October 10-12 and will share strategies designed to enhance your freedom and protect your wealth: like acquiring second residencies and citizenships, legally mitigating your tax burden, purchasing international real estate, holding precious metals offshore, and more. This year’s Summit is focused on Latin America, and over the three days Mikkel will bring together experts to help you build your offshore Plan-B quickly and effectively for this region. Find out more at ExpatMoneySummit.com.