Business Insider — A rising number of American billionaires are channeling their inner Bear Grylls — some in preparation for an apocalyptic event, be it a viral epidemic, nuclear war, or cataclysmic pole shift.
Reid Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn and a notable investor, told The New Yorker earlier this year he estimated that more than 50% of Silicon Valley billionaires had bought some level of “apocalypse insurance,” like an underground bunker.
A new article in Forbes suggests the superrich are making significant land grabs in America’s heartland, where the climate is mild and the locations are conducive to survivalism, farming, and living on the land. States like Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming are home to several fortified shelters and vacation homes where wealthy billionaires could happily live out their post-doomsday (or retirement) days.
According to Jim Dobson, a Forbes contributor, lots of billionaires have private planes “ready to depart at a moment’s notice.” They also own motorcycles, weaponry, and generators.
None of the billionaires named by Forbes has said publicly that their vast amounts of land would be used for apocalypse preparations — though they certainly would make good hideouts.
John Malone, who made his fortune in cable and communications, is the nation’s biggest individual landowner with 2.2 million acres across six states, including huge swaths of Maine and New Hampshire. Malone told Forbes in 2011 that he made the land grabs as an investment. He said he loves to fish and occasionally hunt birds on his properties.
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at Forbes