Latest news with #Seasteading
Sydney Morning Herald
06-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Welcome to Starbase: The world's richest person is making his own city
While the vote will not give Musk free rein to adopt any regulations he wants, city officials will be able to do things such as close roads during rocket launches and build new housing for SpaceX staff. The company has complained of being prevented from building enough housing for the hundreds of workers who want to live near the headquarters. A recent attempt to build more accommodation was rejected by local county officials. In addition to the incorporation, locals elected Bobby Peden, a 36-year-old SpaceX employee who has worked at the company since 2013, as the town's new mayor alongside two city commissioners. Little is known about the town's new leaders, who are all connected to SpaceX and ran unopposed with no campaigning. An X account was created for the new city shortly after the results emerged. In its first post, it said: 'Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space.' Musk is not the only tech billionaire looking to create his own new enclave. Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist known for inventing Netscape, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, are among the backers of California Forever, a real estate company plotting a new city after buying more than 20,000 hectares of land near San Francisco. PayPal tycoon Peter Thiel was one of the first investors in Seasteading, a libertarian project aimed at building floating cities in the middle of the ocean. Crypto entrepreneurs have also tried to create their own utopia in Puerto Rico. Victory for Musk's SpaceX was widely expected given that almost all the 283 eligible voters in the area were employees and their families. Despite this, the vote did face protests amid concerns SpaceX would be granted the power to shut down access to the town's public beach whenever it wanted. The bust of Musk was last month defaced by vandals. Loading Rene Medrano, who grew up going to the Boca Chica beach, told the Texas Tribune: 'It's just such a disgrace on what's happening out here. There's a lot of upset community people who are seeing there's a great chance that we may lose this beach.' Musk has recently relocated many of his companies and headquarters from California to Texas as he seeks out more favourable regulation in the Republican-run state. He recently bought a $US35 million ($54 million) compound in Texas, which is designed to house 11 of his 13 children by different mothers. County officials will canvass the results of the vote in the next fortnight before the official incorporation is declared by a judge. However, Remi Garza, the elections administrator for Cameron County, said: 'It's officially statistically impossible for the measure to fail. Cameron County is about to have a new city.'
Sydney Morning Herald
05-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Welcome to Starbase: Elon Musk to get his own city in Texas
While the vote will not give Musk free reign to adopt any regulations he wants, City officials will be able to do things such as shut down roads during rocket launches and build new housing for SpaceX staff. The company has complained that it has been prevented from building enough housing for the hundreds of workers who want to live near the headquarters. A recent attempt to build more accommodation was rejected by local county officials. In addition to the incorporation, locals elected Bobby Peden, a 36-year-old SpaceX employee who has worked at the company since 2013, as the town's new mayor alongside two city commissioners. Little is known about the town's new leaders, who are all connected to SpaceX and ran unopposed with no campaigning. An X account was created for the new city shortly after the results emerged. In its first post, it said: 'Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space.' Musk is not the only tech billionaire looking to create his own new enclave. Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist known for inventing Netscape, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, are among the backers of California Forever, a real estate company plotting a new city after buying tens of thousands of acres of land near San Francisco. PayPal tycoon Peter Thiel was one of the first investors in Seasteading, a libertarian project aimed at building floating cities in the middle of the ocean. Crypto entrepreneurs have also tried to create their own utopia in Puerto Rico. Victory for Musk's SpaceX was widely expected given that almost all of the 283 eligible voters in the area were employees and their families. Despite this, the vote did face protests amid concerns SpaceX would be granted the power to shut down access to the town's public beach whenever it wanted. The bust of Musk was last month defaced by vandals. Loading Local Rene Medrano, who grew up going to the Boca Chica beach, told the Texas Tribune: 'It's just such a disgrace on what's happening out here. There's a lot of upset community people who are seeing there's a great chance that we may lose this beach.' Musk has recently relocated many of his companies and headquarters from California to Texas as he seeks out more favourable regulation in the Republican-run state. He recently bought a $US35 million ($54 million) compound in Texas, which is designed to house 11 of his children by different mothers. County officials will canvass the results of the vote within the next fortnight before the official incorporation is declared by a judge. However, Remi Garza, the elections administrator for Cameron County, said: 'It's officially statistically impossible for the measure to fail. Cameron County is about to have a new city.'
The Age
05-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Welcome to Starbase: Elon Musk to get his own city in Texas
While the vote will not give Musk free reign to adopt any regulations he wants, City officials will be able to do things such as shut down roads during rocket launches and build new housing for SpaceX staff. The company has complained that it has been prevented from building enough housing for the hundreds of workers who want to live near the headquarters. A recent attempt to build more accommodation was rejected by local county officials. In addition to the incorporation, locals elected Bobby Peden, a 36-year-old SpaceX employee who has worked at the company since 2013, as the town's new mayor alongside two city commissioners. Little is known about the town's new leaders, who are all connected to SpaceX and ran unopposed with no campaigning. An X account was created for the new city shortly after the results emerged. In its first post, it said: 'Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space.' Musk is not the only tech billionaire looking to create his own new enclave. Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist known for inventing Netscape, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, are among the backers of California Forever, a real estate company plotting a new city after buying tens of thousands of acres of land near San Francisco. PayPal tycoon Peter Thiel was one of the first investors in Seasteading, a libertarian project aimed at building floating cities in the middle of the ocean. Crypto entrepreneurs have also tried to create their own utopia in Puerto Rico. Victory for Musk's SpaceX was widely expected given that almost all of the 283 eligible voters in the area were employees and their families. Despite this, the vote did face protests amid concerns SpaceX would be granted the power to shut down access to the town's public beach whenever it wanted. The bust of Musk was last month defaced by vandals. Loading Local Rene Medrano, who grew up going to the Boca Chica beach, told the Texas Tribune: 'It's just such a disgrace on what's happening out here. There's a lot of upset community people who are seeing there's a great chance that we may lose this beach.' Musk has recently relocated many of his companies and headquarters from California to Texas as he seeks out more favourable regulation in the Republican-run state. He recently bought a $US35 million ($54 million) compound in Texas, which is designed to house 11 of his children by different mothers. County officials will canvass the results of the vote within the next fortnight before the official incorporation is declared by a judge. However, Remi Garza, the elections administrator for Cameron County, said: 'It's officially statistically impossible for the measure to fail. Cameron County is about to have a new city.'
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaires dream of building utopian techno-city in Greenland
A handful of wealthy, politically connected Silicon Valley investors are reportedly eyeing Greenland's icy shores as the site for a techno-utopian 'freedom city.' That's according to a report from Reuters, which details a proposed effort to establish a new, libertarian-minded municipality characterized by minimal corporate regulation and a focus on accelerating emerging technologies like AI and mini nuclear reactors. Supporters of increased economic development in Greenland argue its frigid climate could naturally cool massive, energy intensive AI data centers. Large deposits of critical and rare earth minerals buried beneath the island's ice sheets could also potentially be used to manufacture consumer electronics. The so-called 'start-up city'—which bears similarities to another ongoing venture in California's Solano County—reportedly already has the backing of PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Ken Howery, President Donald Trump's pick for Denmark ambassador. If confirmed by the Senate, Howery would lead US discussions to acquire Greenland. In that role, Howery could potentially act as a bridge linking the audacious freedom city investors with the US government. All of that, it's worth noting, will also almost certainly face fierce backlash from Danish officials who have repeatedly pushed back on the Trump's administration's proposals to take over the Arctic island. Proposals to create billionaire-funded stateless societies around the world have been attempted over the years, but none have evolved past much more than a proof of concept. The Reuters report cites claims Howery, Thiel, and prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreesen are amongst the most prominent names backing the Greenland effort. Howery, who still needs the US Senate to confirm his position as ambassador to Denmark, is reportedly a long-time friend of billionaire Elon Musk and formerly founded a venture capital firm with Thiel. Thiel, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the loudest supporters, both vocally and financially, of the 'Seasteading' movement, which is trying to build floating, stateless utopia cities in the ocean. Andressen, notably, is also part of a tech-investor consortium California Forever looking to build the city in Solano County. Each of these efforts—along with others like the already existing city Próspera in Honduras—are united by libertarian political ideals, a focus on technological development, and lots of money. Rumors around the proposed Greenland city date back at least to November 2024 when Praxis co-founder Dryden Brown fired off a series of tweets explaining how he had tried to purchase land in Greenland. Praxis is a self-described 'internet-native nation' crypto startup with a stated goal of 'restor[ing] Western civilization,' and has reportedly received over $525 million in funding to start building out new cities. Brown told Reuters he has since been approached by several companies to explore establishing a new city on Greenland. Related: [Silicon Valley's wealthiest want to build their own city outside of San Francisco] The idea of the U.S. acquiring Greenland, once widely regarded as a joke during the first Trump administration, has evolved into a serious U.S. foreign policy objective. The president campaigned on the issue during the 2024 election and has since doubled down, despite repeated assertions from Danish officials that the island isn't for sale. Nevertheless, Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, visited a U.S. military installation on the island in March 2024 and delivered a speech urging Greenlanders to voluntarily cut ties with Denmark. (Recent polling shows that an overwhelming majority of Greenland residents oppose the idea of possible annexation by the U.S.) President Trump, meanwhile, has not ruled out the possibility of taking the territory by force. So why all the obsession with a mostly uninhabitable island with a population of around 57,000? Supporters of Greenland development laid out their arguments during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing earlier this year. During the hearing, Texas Mineral Resources Board Chairman Anthony Marchese claimed Greenland's coastline holds what is 'indisputably' one of the greatest collections of minerals found in a single jurisdiction. That includes rare earth minerals, which are crucial to powering a plethora of modern consumer electronics devices. 'Throw a dart at any part of the coastline and you will surely hit a world class [mineral] target,' Marchese said during the hearing. Most of those minerals are currently buried beneath thick sheets of previously impenetrable ice. But supporters of investment in Greenland argue that new mining techniques, combined with the melting of some ice due to a warming climate, could make those once-inaccessible minerals within reach. Others, like US Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) say Greenland's cool temperatures and proximity to geothermal vents could make it an ideal location to power the massive data centers needed for AI. In theory, that combination of cool temperatures and access to energy could be attractive for tech companies looking to rapidly ramp up computing capacity without relying on fossil fuels. Brown, the Praxis founder, also told Reuters he believes Greenland's harsh topography could make it an ideal site for experiments aimed at replicating the surface of Mars.
