FX.co ★ Billionaires who want to build their own cities

Elon Musk

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been aiming at building a self-sustaining city for a long time. In 2014, he first mentioned the idea of building a metropolis on Mars. However, almost 10 years have passed. SpaceX is still unable to land Starships on Mars. It appears colonization plans will hardly turn into reality in the near future. Musk also wanted to create a new city called Snailbrook near Boca Chica, Texas for SpaceX employees. Texans have spoken out against the billionaire’s efforts. This is why a few believe that Musk will eventually build a city there.

Marc Lore

Approximately 2 years ago, former CEO of retail giant Walmart Marc Lore revealed his plans to create his own city called Telosa. He wanted to establish a city in the desert but he did not specify the exact place of construction. Lore promised that the city would be powered solely by renewable energy. Its residents will move only by self-driving cars. He planned to spend $400 billion on the construction. Unfortunately, it is unknown whether the tycoon managed to move from words to action.

Peter Thiel

Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel also had a plan for a utopian city. In 2008, he announced his plans to develop a floating city, called a seastead. It was supposed to operate independently from existing nations as a small, self-sufficient island. Thiel managed to agree on the construction of a city in the Pacific Ocean near the shores of French Polynesia. However, later, this country terminated the agreement. Due to endless challenges, Thiel left The Seasteading Institute’s board in 2011. The Seasteading Institute still promotes the idea on its website.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

In 2021, the construction of Neom, the world's first city without roads and cars, began on the territory of 3 countries - Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. The Saudi Crown Prince has commissioned officials to create a city on the scale of the pyramids of Egypt and with zero carbon emissions. He also provides funds for the construction of the megalopolis. Neom is intended to house millions of people and several thousand robots will work there. For this reason, the city is likely to become the most high-tech in the world.

Bill Gates

In 2017, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates invested about $80 million in the Belmont project. The city with this name was planned to be built in southwestern Arizona. The area of Balmont was supposed to be more than 10,000 hectares with 80,000 houses. The main feature of the city was meant to be its high-tech infrastructure. It is unknown whether Bill Gates managed to start creating a smart city.

Les Wexner

In the 1980s, Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Bodywork’s billionaire Les Wexner decided to construct a country house in the small town of New Albany, Ohio. Shortly after, he bought up all the land in the city and started developing his own city, turning it into a southern utopia. According to Bloomberg, over the past 40 years, Les Wexner built rows of identical Georgian-style brick mansions in New Albany. The tycoon spent several million dollars on this project.