Peter Thiel.Shutterstock and Neilson Barnard/Getty
- The Silicon Valley tech elite, perhaps out of mere wealth and circumstance, have begun investing in apocalypse preparations in recent years.
- Buying up real estate to serve as hideaway bunkers is one such step taken — and New Zealand has become a popular place to do so.
- The Valley's enthusiasm for New Zealand as an apocalyptic refuge could be traced back to a book cited as most influential to Peter Thiel, and whose ideology was then dispersed to other big players in the tech arena.
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Some of the wealthiest of Silicon Valley have developed a penchant for prepping for the apocalypse in recent years.
From getting Lasik eye surgery to learning archery, tech execs are shelling out money and time to better their odds in the event that the world ends.
But one figure among the Valley's upper echelons may have had something to do with establishing the perfect place to hole up during an apocalypse.
Peter Thiel — Facebook board member, billionaire venture capitalist, and outspoken Trump supporter and advisor — zeroed in on the small island nation of New Zealand in 2011 and other members of the Valley elite have since followed suit.
Here's how Peter Thiel may have been the trendsetter behind New Zealand's role in Silicon Valley's doomsday prepping movement, from buying a sprawling 477-acre New Zealand sheep station and harboring an obsession with "The Lord of the Rings" to citing a book that outlines the rise of the "cognitive elite" following a civilizational disintegration.
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