When Julian Ako was a child, he used to visit his great-grandfather’s land near Pilaa Beach, Kauai. It was a place where his family foraged for mushrooms from kukui trees and gathered seaweed and fish from the reefs.
Today, that same land belongs to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who’s building a private compound that could end up costing more than $300 million. And here’s the thing: WIRED has now confirmed that part of the property includes family burial sites. Ako’s great-grandmother and her brother were buried there.
After a long back-and-forth with Zuckerberg’s team, Ako was granted access and succeeded in identifying and registering the graves with Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources. He believes other ancestors may also be buried there, though their exact resting places remain unknown. A state report cited by WIRED supports this belief, stating there’s a high probability of additional graves based on oral histories.
Today, visits to those graves are coordinated by Zuckerberg’s property team. But Ako—who’s also a member of the Oahu Island Burial Council—is worried about how future discoveries will be handled, given how secretive the entire project is.
Here’s why that matters: almost everyone working on the site has signed NDAs. That means if workers come across bones—known locally as “iwi”—they might stay silent to protect their jobs. “They’re basically under oath not to say anything,” Ako said. “If they find iwi, the public might never know.”
Zuckerberg’s spokesperson, Brandi Hoffine Barr, confirmed that the burial site was acknowledged in 2015 and has been fenced and maintained since. She also noted that workers are legally required to report any unexpected discoveries of human remains.
But there’s more: Zuckerberg has been quietly expanding his land holdings. Earlier this year, he bought an additional 962 acres of ranchland through an LLC with a Hawaiian name. According to insiders, the price tag was over $65 million. This pushes Zuckerberg’s total land in Kauai past 2,300 acres—making him one of Hawaii’s biggest landowners.
Construction on the compound is still going strong. Recently obtained planning documents show three new buildings are being developed. Each is massive—between 7,800 and 11,000 square feet—and designed more like dorms than mansions, with dozens of bedrooms and bathrooms lined up like a hotel. Security is tight: cameras, motion detectors, and keypad locks are standard.
According to Zuckerberg’s team, these buildings will be short-term lodging for guests, staff, and family. They join an already surreal setup: two football-field-sized mansions, a tennis court, gym, guest houses, treehouses shaped like UFOs, and even a tunnel leading to a blast-proof underground shelter the size of an NBA court. There’s also a large water tank, multiple pump buildings, and satellite images showing even more structures that haven’t yet shown up in public records. Based on existing floor plans, WIRED estimates the compound could house more than 100 people when completed.
