Mark Zuckerberg Is Expanding His Secretive Hawaii Compound. Part of It Sits Atop a Burial Ground

The 2025 land buy is Zuckerberg’s largest thus far in total acreage, situated on the mauka, or inland, side of the road across from his initial purchase. Public records list the Mary Lucas Trust Estate as the seller, descendants of an early British adviser to King Kamehameha I. The trust had leased its lands to sugar plantations before they were restored as pasture land for cattle in the 1970s by cousins and former trustees Jimmy Pflueger and Paul Cassiday. In recent years, the trust has been selling off significant chunks of its lands. Though the total purchase price is not listed, a source close to the sale estimated it was at least $65 million, and property records place the land’s market value at around $75 million. Hoffine Barr confirmed that the billionaire had purchased additional ranch land, but did not comment on the size or price. It’s unclear what the CEO intends to do with his new acquisition, but the source also described the parcel as “great cattle grass,” so it seems likely that Zuckerberg’s husky, beer-filled cows may soon be roaming its 962 acres.

“Mark and Priscilla continue to make a home for their family and grow their ranching, farming, and conservation efforts at Ko’olau Ranch,” says Hoffine Barr. “The vast majority of the land is dedicated to agriculture—including cattle ranching, organic ginger, macadamia nut, and turmeric farming, native plant restoration, and endangered species protection. After purchasing the ranch, they canceled the previous owner’s plans for 80 luxury homes.”

With the new buildings and new land, Zuckerberg’s total investment in his compound now exceeds the entirety of the $311 million fiscal year 2024 Kauai operating expenses budget.

This dramatic influx of wealth has led to inevitable changes in the community. On one hand, Zuckerberg has given millions to local nonprofits, including recent donations to build a charter school and an affordable housing nonprofit near the compound. His construction projects provide good-paying jobs. But there remains a lot of skepticism toward the recent trend of billionaires buying up Hawaiian lands.

As more of the defunct sugarcane plantations that own huge slices of Hawaiian land begin offloading their assets, more new-money billionaires have been buying in. In 2012, then Oracle CEO Larry Ellison bought almost the entirety of the smaller island of Lanai for $300 million, which he has been developing into a luxury resort destination. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former TV presenter and businesswoman Oprah Winfrey both have outposts on Maui. And Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been secretly buying up large swaths of the Big Island for unclear purposes. Billionaires pay top dollar, driving up property values. (Following publication of this article, a spokesperson for Benioff clarified in a statement that a majority of the land purchased had been “donated to philanthropic causes.”)

Driven partially by an influx of wealthy mainlanders during the Covid-19 pandemic, Hawaii housing prices have skyrocketed, leaving home ownership out of reach for local renters. “If our island has any hope of remaining Hawaii, this kind of activity has got to stop,” professor of Native Hawaiian studies at the Kauai Community College Puali‘i Rossi tells me, when I mention the new Zuckerberg land buy. “Eventually Hawaii isn’t going to look like Hawaii anymore—it’s going to be a resort community. Are we really thinking about 100 years from now, what this island is going to look like?”

On a damp Sunday afternoon during the February wet season, a few pickup trucks pass through the main gated entrance outside Zuckerberg’s compound on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Backhoes and bulldozers rest in the red mud outside the tall stone walls, constructed in 2016 to keep out prying eyes.

It’s a relatively quiet day, but security is still alert. As I take a picture of the guard shack from the road, a woman’s head pops out. “Hoi, don’t do that,” she says. “They don’t like that. They’re very private.”

Update: 7/25/2025, 12:30 PM EDT: The piece was updated with a statement clarifying the status of Marc Benioff’s land purchases.