A tech billionaire is quietly buying up land in Hawaii. No one knows why
A tech billionaire is quietly buying up land in Hawaii. No one knows why
Marc Benioff
He's the CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Salesforce, one of the world's largest software companies, which owns the popular messaging service Slack and is worth nearly $300 billion. He also owns Time magazine.
When I ask Benioff about the properties in the anonymous LLCs, things seem to take a turn. He starts speaking more quickly and fidgets with a piece of paper in his hand. He's reluctant to go through the holdings, and his adviser on the Zoom call jumps in to say we can discuss later.
A couple of days before the interview, Benioff texted the same NPR colleague again, asking for intel on my story. Then he called me and demanded to know the title of this piece. During that call, he also mentioned he knew the exact area where I was staying. Unnerved, I asked how he knew, and he said, "It's my job. You have a job and I have a job." During the interview, he brings up more personal details about me and my family.
I leave the meeting disconcerted and still unclear about what exactly is happening with his land in Waimea.
The following day, I drive around with a photographer to take pictures of the town and Benioff's projects. We go to the property he described as a community center and are confronted by one of his employees. The photographer explains we're there to take photos of the outside of the building. Shortly afterward, I get a text from Benioff. His employee seemed to think we were "snooping," and he says he's escalating the incident to NPR CEO John Lansing. Lansing confirmed he spoke with Benioff, without going into detail — the NPR newsroom operates independently, and the CEO is not involved in editorial decision-making. Benioff didn't respond to my question about the purpose of this call.
There Is No Such Thing As A Good Billionaire. Every billionaire is a cancerous tumor that needs to be removed from society.
? Bill Gates seems to be doing a good job and contributing pretty significantly to doing good.
If you make broad statements about every person in a category it hurts rather than helps your cause.
Edit: I've replied to many people below but noone has ready provided any strong counter arguments but keep downvoting. Not sure why, as again - everyone is just circlejerking themselves that billionaires are bad and should be killed without actually trying to have a decent discussion on the whole thing. At this point I assume people are just trolling as it seems unlikely so many people are unable to think it through logically.
Bill Gates whose wife divorced him after it came out that he was on Epstein's plane? Or Bill Gates who spent like 30 years building a monopoly on anti-competitive tactics and used that position to ground any contenders into dust?
Trying to karmicly balance decades of being a shit stain by switching to altruism once you're old and rich isn't the same as being a good person.
Let me repeat myself so it sinks in ALL. BILLIONAIRES. ARE. BAD.
Billionaires are the tumorous growths from the cancer of capitalism and should be excised with the same urgency. None of them are "good" or "okay" until they cease existing. Eating them would be a kindness they are unworthy of.
You must be too young to remember when Bill Gates was the one person the entire world could agree was a worthless asshole.
If you need a primer: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lFS9DFXtj1M
Yeah, the bill and Melinda gates foundation does a lot of good work. Doesn't mean bill gates is a good person but maybe there are some billionaires higher on the arsehole scale.
The real story is the stupid shit he pulled by trying to bully and intimidate a reporter and a news organization.
that's called staying a billionaire
He's buying farmland. Billionares are preparing to profit from the coming climate apocalypse by buying land and water. Marc Benioff isnt the only one. Hawaii is a great idea, niiiice and defensible. the future is gonna be fucking exciting folks, i cannot begin to tell you how terrified i am that we wont kill these fucking punks in time to save ourselves
I think it's kinda crazy that him and zuck chose Hawaii for their doomsday bunker, especially considering they chose the same small island.
Hawaii may be defensible now, but climate change is going to make it a whole lot harder. Microenvironments like small islands are prone to systemic collapse when exposed to rapid changes.
I just don't really see how the benefits of isolation really overcome the negative effects of climate change will surely bring.
Maybe he is a straw purchaser for Zuck.
One day Hawaii might become the next Taiwan.
Edit to add: By the lack of downvotes, I must not have been clear. I meant that, after the revolution, the surviving capitalist class would retreat to a “USA” consisting of only Hawaii. Much like the Republic of China now consists of only Taiwan.
how terrified i am that we wont kill these fucking punks in time to save ourselves
We won't. The future will look like now but worse off and people will have just adjusted to keep living and trying to pretend to be happy in it by buying more even as the class that can shrinks. And complaints will be answered with angry responses of people needing to smile more and not ruin their fun times. It's easy to just not go against the flow and argue that people drowning deserve it and that it will just bring you down when you try to help them.
Isolation is probably gonna rise further. And humans will adapt because the ones that don't will die. Simple as that.
There are people far dumber than him that have already figured out that retreating to your own island in times of global crisis is a momumentally stupid idea.
During that call, he also mentioned he knew the exact area where I was staying. Unnerved, I asked how he knew, and he said, "It's my job. You have a job and I have a job."
So the tech CEO's job is... checks notes ...spying on journalists?
His job is trying to sound all tough and intimidating yet achieving nothing except making himself look even more pathetic.
Are all of the properties connected? When Bill Gates built his house he used a bunch of shell companies to buy up all the lots that became his estate, so that the owners didn't realize there was a big project planned there by the richest man in the world and demand higher prices.
So this guy is going full Bond villain and no one but this reporter is calling him on it, got it.
And he's trying to intimidate the reporter by threatening her family and her job.
it's all the billionaires can think to do with their money
Gee, way to not act suspicious. Guess he is all in on intimidation as a means of control.
You act like this wouldn't work on literally every other major media outlet besides NPR...
The billionaire club is a small club, we're not in it and they don't give a single fuck about all of us out together.
Billionaires don't need to intimidate NPR, they own it. Have you seen the list of sponsors? Carnagie. Rockefeller. Walton. The list is on their website, it's chock full of names like that. You ever wonder why NPR always tows the DNC party line, practically word for word? It's because NPR and the DNC have the same bosses. This guy's mistake was not being on that list.
Just what the people of Hawaii need, another rich person snatching up precious land on an island that already has a high cost of living.
CEO is not involved in editorial decision-making
Heh, I love it when a rich idiot gets shut down by some good ol' journalistic ethics. "No, you are not special, Mr. Benioff."
Shout out to that NPR reporter for not being intimidated
Volcano lair, obviously.
To store barrels of other countries' toxic waste, obviously.
Isn't this super obvious, he's going to try to buy the island wholesale make it private and declare tacit sovereignity like he's a dole or some shit.
New special sex island?
He is probably just jealous of Larry Ellison
Or Jeffrey Epstein.
Wrong ocean
Or Zuckerberg.
Man is he the reason Salesforce has a weird "Hawaiian" theme in their offices.
Might be worried about domestic conflict, I am, and I think everyone should be pretty concerned about the end of this year.
Yeah, that's my thinking as well. All these billionaires seem to be becoming doomsday preppers (Zuck, Altman, etc).
After reading about "effective accelerationism," which many of these people seem to subscribe to, I think they're worried "technocapitalism" and AI will cause a collapse of society. I.e. they're purposely funding and promoting projects they think will cause a societal collapse. It's a really wierd cult-like ideology and worldview. I think they've fallen for their own grifts.
But yeah, I'm personally more worried about the destruction of U.S. institutions (which Trump and Republicans publicly admit they plan to do), and the potential social unrest, federal-state conflict, and economic havoc it may cause.
Doomsday bunker, there, I solved it!
Yeah. I mean, if I had the money I’d build a retreat there too. Like a big one. Good transport, reliable commerce, great weather. The only down side is it’s expensive. But if I’m a billionaire what do I care how much a banana costs?
Rich people just doing what they always done. Kick indigenous peoples off their land and give them STDs.
You had me until STDs
