Deutsche Welle (English edition)
New Zealand: Underfunded tech hub, or maybe just the ideal spot to ride out the apocalypse
Google's Larry Page has been granted New Zealand residency, boosting the country’s image as a refuge for tech billionaires. Is it all because the Pacific island nation is the best place to shelter from societal collapse?
"Saying you're 'buying a house in New Zealand' is kind of a wink, wink, say no more." So said Reid Hoffmann, LinkedIn cofounder, in an article in The New Yorker that caused a stir in 2017.
Three years before the pandemic was defined, the article "Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich" outlined the extent to which high-net-worth people were preparing for an apparently impending apocalypse. "We're buying a house in New Zealand" was code for "we're gearing up for Armageddon."
New Zealand is the most isolated rich country in the world and just last month was named by researchers from the Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom as the best place to survive global societal collapse.
It has long held that status among those interested in such things. The idea that the country is laden with secret luxury survival bunkers is even an internet meme. So when a famous billionaire announces plans to move there, that does draw some attention.
Last week it was revealed that Larry Page, the co-founder of Google and the world's sixthrichest person with a fortune of around $122 billion (€104.1 billion), had obtained New Zealand residency. This under a special category for investors, which requires them to pump 10 million New Zealand dollars ($6.9 million, €5.9 million) into the country over a three-year period.
Thiel tales
Page's motivations may have nothing to do with apocalypse survival planning. But this story does recall the tale of New Zealand's most famous billionaireinvestor-survivalist: Peter Thiel.
Thiel made his name by founding PayPal, and his megafortune by buying 10% of Facebook for just $500,000 in 2004 — a stake he ultimately sold for more than $1 billion.
The bizarre story of his relationship with New Zealand is perhaps the main reason the country is so strongly associated with the idea of being a refuge for Silicon Valley's elite.
Thiel is known among other things for his unusual political views. He has spoken of how influenced he is by the 1997 book "The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive during the Collapse of the Welfare State."
That book argues that democratic nation-states will ultimately become obsolete, and that a "cognitive elite," with vast wealth and resources, will no longer be subject to government regulation and become the primary shapers of governance. Thiel's own book, "Zero to One," expands on some of these ideas at length.
Shortly after Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election in the United States, Thiel's interest in New Zealand stepped up. He said in 2011 that "no other country aligns more with my view of the future than New Zealand."
Around this time, he was secretly applying for New Zealand citizenship. Despite having spent barely any time in the country, his application was granted. However, that all remained a secret for six years.
In 2016, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sam Altman revealed in an interview in The New Yorkerhe had made an agreement with Thiel, that in the event of some global catastrophe, they would fly together to a property Thiel owned in New Zealand.
This led New Zealand Heraldinvestigative reporter Matt Nippert to look into what property Thiel owned. It turned out that Thiel had bought a 477-acre (193hectare) former sheep ranch on New Zealand's sparsely populated South Island, as well as a luxury townhouse in nearby Queenstown.
Nippert's work ultimately revealed that Thiel had been granted citizenship — news that sparked major controversy in the country.
Thiel's Kiwi passion peters out
Yet by the time of that revelation in 2017, Thiel's interest in New Zealand had already cooled significantly. Thiel was a major Donald Trump supporter, and his election appeared to refresh Thiel's faith in the US.
His huge ranch at Damper Bay on South Island, far from being a survivalist compound, has been left largely untouched over the years. No planning applications have been made and Thiel has spent barely any time in the country in recent years. His townhouse has recently gone up for sale.
As part of his route to citizenship, Thiel had pledged to invest heavily in New Zealand's tech sector, which he has called underrated and underfunded.
He heavily and successfully backed local accounting software startup Xero and retail software firm Fend; but as New Zealand investigative reporter Nippert told DW, once his citizenship was granted, Thiel's financial
commitment to New Zealand also cooled significantly and is dormant at present.
Bunker of the mind
For Nippert, Thiel's interest in New Zealand did not stem from a burning belief in the country's tech sector or necessarily from seeing it as an ideal apocalypse safe haven.
"You don't need an actual bunker here because it is a legal bunker," Nippert told DW. "New Zealand is a great place [...] we don't have armed mobs or warlords. We have a fairly well regarded, uncorrupt public service. There is low firearms ownership."
"It's a bunker of the mind. It's a fall back plan if the IRS comes after you. I suspect that may be the motivation."
Escaping the apocalypse (or the taxman)
Precisely what Thiel's ultimate New Zealand plans are remain unclear. But the image of the country as an ideal bolthole for the American super-rich to escape to has been bolstered during the pandemic, with reports of well-heeled US citizens activating long-held Kiwi escape plans once the coronavirus hit.
The news of Page's residency
adds to this mystique. Nippert suspects Page just wants easy access in and out of the country.
He has continued to investigate the extent to which overseas investors, like Thiel or Page, have established links to New Zealand. Nippert said that people he trusts say this continues happening, although he himself has found little evidence it is as widespread as reported.
Meanwhile, New Zealand continues to be seen as the place to be when the world finally comes crashing down.
"The way these guys operate, hedge fund managers [...] they assess risk and what will happen if certain unlikely events happen, and how can you be positioned to survive and make a profit from it."
"Does he [Thiel] have an inside line on the end of the world? I think anyone reading the news over the last few years would be concerned about the direction things are going."
of CO2, and burning that waste adds another 2.7 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, the study's authors determined.
"The climate targets of Germany and the rest of the EU will be missed unless significant efforts are made to strengthen the circular economy," co-author Frederik Lettow said in a press release. "To be climate neutral by midcentury, it is not enough to rely on low-emission production processes alone."
The DIW, which also provides policy advice, has called for an array of EU regulatory reforms that will encourage a greater focus on recycling in the bloc. This includes more effective price signals for CO2 emissions tradings and legal standards requiring plastic products and packaging be made with recyclability in mind.
Thus far, producers of plastics and trash incineration companies had benefited from farreaching exemptions to EU emissions trading, the report said. EU sustainability targets specify that 50% of plastic packaging waste should be recycled by 2025 and 55 % by 2030.
Thinking forward
The recyclability dilemma goes farther than just plastic. And some market players are al
ready trying to address it.
Staying on the topic of tires: In 2020, American footwear and outdoor brand Timberland partnered with tire manufacturer Omni United to produce footwear out of used tires. But they aren't just any tires. These ones are purposefully designed to be recycled into footwear outsoles.
"The easiest way to think of our tire-to-sole program is like taking off a pair of pants and cutting them into shorts," Timberland wrote on its website when it announced the partnership.
This is the kind of longterm thinking DIW says will be
necessary to reduce the plastic waste contributing to carbon emissions.
"In the consumer goods market, it is essential for manufacturers to make packaging recyclable in order to recycle more effectively," DIW wrote. "But they have no incentive to do so."
So far, the main drivers for companies to pursue more sustainable practices has been corporate social responsibility, or as a way to market themselves as green to consumers that are increasingly sensitive to sustainability.
A trend gains momentum
For many, these reasons have been good enough. Burgeoning upcycling initiatives can be found in many markets.
German shoe brands Puma and Adidas, among others, have launched shoe collections made from plastic waste collected from the environment. Building on a secondary service selling gently used items from its clothing brand, outdoor company Patagonia now also tailors products with greater wear into new garments. Competitor The North Face similarly expanded on its own secondhand e-commerce platform and launched an inhouse design residency where its designers learn about the principles of the circular economy.
In the realm of computers, tech company HP recently launched what it calls "the world's most sustainable PC portfolio," which includes a new laptop made with oceanbound plastics. The company has pledged to include ocean-bound plastics in all new desktop and laptop computers launched in its Elite and Pro lines.
Greenwashing
These initiatives, however, can obscure the bigger picture, which is that most manufactured products and their byproducts are still not recycled and in many cases couldn't even be. Even perfectly good, unused products often end up in landfills.
In June, British broadcaster ITV reported that Amazon was destroying millions of items of unsold stock, including laptops, smart TVs and hair dryers, at just one of its warehouses in the UK. This week,the e-commerce giant responded by announcing initiatives to facilitate the sale of returned or overstocked items.
"Increased and higher quality recycling of plastic products cannot be achieved by individual market players," DIW said.
Environmental Sciences.
"Here in France we have access to many cheesemakers and many food scientists and there's a lot of know-how in dairy cheese making," Akbaraly said, adding: "The food lab allowed us to experiment and carry out prototyping and apply all the best knowledge in the dairy process to the plantbased to create products with a good nutritional profile. And, the Smart Food Paris incubator helped connect us with retailers and institutional partners for the business."
A reputation for good food
It turned out to be a winning recipe. Last year, Akbaraly managed to raise more than €2 million during a funding round, allowing him to expand his team and invest in a pilot production unit in southeast Paris.
The vegan soft cheese wheels and spreads are available in select stores and bakeries in
France as well as Germany. His plan is to export to other markets in Europe.
France's reputation as a mecca for gastronomic cuisine undoubtedly goes a long way in helping its food startups. According to Choose Paris Region, an agency meant to attract investment to Paris, startups in the food sector raised a total of $700 million (€590 million) in 2019, making France the second largest player for food tech investments in Europe after the UK.