What would you do with an enormous fortune at your fingertips? These lucky billionaires don’t have to daydream. Instead, they’re turning their wildest visions into reality and using their vast fortunes to construct utopian cities across the Earth… and beyond.
Read on to discover seven jaw-dropping cities of the future being shaped by today’s billionaires, from Elon Musk’s Mars colonies to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s desert 'gigacity'.
All dollar amounts in US dollars.
As if being a serial entrepreneur and the owner of X (formerly Twitter) weren't enough, Elon Musk is busy developing Snailbrook, a dedicated town for SpaceX and The Boring Company employees.
The community is based near Austin, Texas where Musk's car company Tesla has been located since 2021. Reports suggest the world's richest person snapped up between 3,500 and 6,000 acres of land for this ambitious project, and construction is underway for factories and facilities that will support Musk’s SpaceX and The Boring Company ventures.
Nestled 35 miles (56km) outside Austin, Snailbrook (pictured) is currently modest, featuring a handful of trailer homes and an outdoor recreation area. However, this is only a taste of the exciting developments ahead.
Musk recently unveiled plans for Project Amazing – Phase I. They reveal that Snailbrook will feature streets with The Boring Company-themed names such as Boring Boulevard, Waterjet Way and Cutterhead Crossing, as well as boasting 110 detached homes and a Montessori school.
But Musk’s ambitions extend far beyond Snailbrook: by 2050, he also aims to establish a self-sustaining Mars colony for one million people. SpaceX is committed to making life multi-planetary, and Musk wants to use the company’s Starship crafts to transport passengers and cargo to the Red Planet during favourable Earth-Mars alignments, which occur every 26 months.
Musk has admitted that life for early Mars residents would be “hard” and “dangerous” and even confessed that some citizens might die, though he hopes the allure of adventure will prompt brave explorers to take the risk. The first colonists would be tasked with establishing vital infrastructure such as life support systems and habitats. In the long term, Musk envisions a vibrant Martian city with many economic opportunities for settlers.
Musk has already suggested several ways of financing the bold project. This includes launching satellites and servicing the International Space Station, which SpaceX is already doing to generate revenues. Meanwhile, another proposed money spinner is point-to-point travel on Earth, where spacecraft transport people around the planet in under an hour.
One thing's for sure: the project will prove out-of-this-world expensive. But Musk has predicted a future where Mars travel is much more affordable, potentially costing less than $200,000 (£161k) per ticket.
However, Musk's futuristic vision has caused controversy. Critics have raised concerns about everything from the feasibility of the project to its potential environmental impact, not to mention the questionable ethics of prioritising colonising Mars amid the significant challenges on Earth.
Undeterred, the world's richest man has recently claimed that humans could land on Mars within four years and that a self-sustaining city could be up and running in just 20 years.
Elon Musk isn’t the only billionaire with aspirations for an outer space community. In a 2019 presentation at his space exploration company, Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos revealed grand ambitions to construct floating colonies in space.
Bezos detailed futuristic plans for O’Neill colonies, inspired by a proposal from physicist Gerard O’Neill back in 1976. These spinning cylinders (shown), designed to replicate Earth’s gravity, could orbit Earth and potentially accommodate up to a staggering one trillion people, according to the Amazon founder.
Describing the colonies as “Maui on its best day, all year long”, Bezos paints a utopian picture of a climate free from rain and earthquakes – a place where humanity would eagerly choose to live in the future.
As the concept art (pictured) shows, these advanced colonies would contain diverse habitats featuring high-speed transportation, agricultural areas, recreational spaces and even national parks. Some could replicate Earth’s cities, offering citizens a blend of familiarity and an extraordinary living experience.
Bezos has also suggested the colonies could feature flexible gravity levels, with areas with zero G’s for recreational purposes, enabling residents to “go flying with their own wings”.
This may sound too good to be true, and Bezos has acknowledged that we haven't yet invented the technology needed to build these space colonies. However, he's pledged to lay the groundwork for future generations and his commitment begins with the Blue Moon lander, a spacecraft designed to transport payloads and people to the moon’s surface. The craft could one day play a pivotal role in constructing the infrastructure for floating space colonies.
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Back on Earth, former Walmart executive Marc Lore has visionary plans for a sustainable city in the US desert. According to Lore, the utopian city of Telosa would be a winning blend of Tokyo's cleanliness, New York's diversity and Stockholm's social services.
Covering 150,000 acres, Telosa would house five million people upon its completion. Locations are still under consideration, with Nevada, Utah, Texas and Arizona among the potential candidates.
Designed as a '15-minute city', residents could access work, school and amenities within a short distance of their homes. It promises eco-friendly architecture, sustainable energy production and a drought-resistant water system.
Amazingly, it's been estimated the city could reach its target population of five million people within the next four decades.
The initial phase of construction, accommodating 50,000 residents over 1,500 acres, will cost around $25 billion (£20bn). Meanwhile, the project's total cost is estimated at a staggering $400 billion (£322bn).
Funding will reportedly come from many sources, including private investors, philanthropists, federal and state grants and economic development subsidies. If development goes according to plan, Telosa could welcome its first lucky residents as soon as 2030.
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is the investor and founder behind The Seasteading Institute, established in 2008. The nonprofit organisation advocates for the development of floating cities in the ocean. These pioneering sea communities are envisioned to be environmentally restorative and provide residents with a degree of political autonomy.
Rather than construct floating sea communities, the aim of the institute is to support and empower others to undertake such initiatives. The picture shows concept art from The Seasteading Institute, offering insight into what these communities could look like.
As an example, the Seasteading Institute is supporting Arktide, an eco-friendly seasteading company based in Florida that's committed to constructing affordable housing on the seas.
Arktide aims to establish sustainable sea infrastructure that meets the basic needs of humanity while fostering the flourishing of ocean life. The company is currently working on innovative designs with a focus on safety and affordability for individuals and businesses considering moving to the seas.
Additionally, Arktide is taking part in the $100 million (£80m) Carbon Removal XPRIZE competition, with a goal of removing over a gigatonne of carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere through natural ocean processes.
Concept art by Arktide (shown) features a small floating home equipped with solar panels for power. Could this startup be the first step towards creating fully realised floating cities, aligning with the vision of The Seasteading Institute? Only time will tell...
The stuff of sci-fi, Neom is the jaw-dropping urban development currently taking shape in the Saudi Arabian desert.
Announced in 2017 and expected to cost $1.5 trillion (£1.2tn), the mind-boggling megaproject is almost the size of Belgium and consists of a number of futuristic regions. Among them is The Line, a mirrored linear megacity with a projected population of nine million.
Neom will comprise 10 regions covering an incredible 10,600 square miles (26,500sq km) in northwestern Saudi Arabia's Tabuk Province, which borders the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba. The site is around the size of Albania and almost as large as Belgium.
Neom's proposed regions include an island beach destination, mountain ski resort, floating industrial port city, an ultra-luxury upside-down skyscraper and the previously mentioned The Line, a mirrored linear city that's arguably the most ambitious – not to mention the most expensive – part of the project.
However, although construction on the site is underway, plans for The Line have been dramatically scaled back. According to a Bloomberg report, by 2030, the proposed 106-mile-long city will stretch for just 1.5 miles (2.4km). And while The Line was set to be home to 1.5 million people by the end of the decade, just 300,000 residents will inhabit the project.
A long list of experts feel the megaproject is unrealistic and unlikely to happen in its entirety.
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Now discover the incredible megaprojects around the world that STILL aren't finished