Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate are building a $3.9 million luxury bunker in Bucharest, complete with a stripper pole.
The project is being carried out by Ron Hubbard, the most renowned builder of underground shelters in the world, who claims that among his clients have been billionaires, members of royal families, and even Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, as revealed by The Times.
Andrew and Tristan Tate, influencers with dual British and American citizenship, are accused of rape and human trafficking in both Romania and the UK.
"I only have words of praise for Tristan"
The Tate project will feature ten bedrooms, separate living spaces, and a recreation room with a stripper pole.
"I only have words of praise for Tristan," says Hubbard, describing him as "professional, polite, convincing."
Hubbard showed a video to "The Times" reporter, recorded last month, featuring him in the $2.1 million Aston Martin of the younger Tate brother.
On the other hand, Andrew is "in his own world. He's the OG. You can't talk to the OG," says Ron Hubbard. (OG, originating from the English expression Original Gangster, is a slang term with its roots in American gang culture to describe a senior member, highly respected. However, its meaning has evolved, and it is now widely used to refer to someone who is the original, authentic, or initiator of something, a recognized expert, or simply highly respected for their experience and authenticity - ed.).
For billionaires and influencers, bunkers have become a new type of luxury collectible item, similar to supercars or private jets, as reported by The Times.
Ron Hubbard is the founder of Atlas Survival Shelters. "I don't sell a product. I sell a feeling - survival, safety, exclusivity, and a rarity that only a few people have," says the Texan entrepreneur while inspecting one of his luxurious underground creations.
What an Atlas bunker looks like
At an ordinary house on a farm in Texas, hidden behind a living room library, a secret entrance leads to a descending staircase. Concealed one meter underground is a 93-square-meter fallout shelter designed to withstand a nuclear explosion. Inside, it looks more like a bachelor pad than a survival room: 3-meter high ceilings, a movie projector, six comfortable armchairs, granite kitchen countertops, and a neon-lit gun safe.
The bunker is sealed with gas-resistant, steel-reinforced doors and equipped with a filtration system that protects against nuclear, biological, and chemical radiation. An escape hatch also serves as additional storage space, and solar panels provide electricity. For approximately $1.5 million, the property buyer will receive a ready-to-use apocalyptic shelter.
At 61 years old, Hubbard has become the most prominent doomsday shelter magnate in America. A former steel designer and manufacturer, he launched Atlas in 2011, initially selling his steel shelters as luxury recreational rooms for enthusiasts and hunters. However, as global events grew darker, demand increased. The Covid pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and US airstrikes on Iran led to a surge in requests.
"The news scares people," says Hubbard. "If Trump makes peace with Putin and Putin aligns, it's bad for business, but it's good for the world," explains the entrepreneur.
Atlas now builds around 300 bunkers per year at its factory in Sulphur Springs, Texas, the largest factory dedicated to atomic shelters on earth. Hubbard employs 50 full-time workers who cut and weld steel modular frames, then equip them with plumbing, electrical systems, beds, floors, and air conditioning systems.
Bunkers range from $20,000 steel capsules to custom concrete complexes costing over $5 million.
A clever image campaign brought famous clients
Hubbard provides enough clues to give us an idea about his clients, but rarely mentions names, citing confidentiality agreements, reports The Times. He claims to have sold bunkers to NFL team owners, members of royal families in the Middle East, and "four of the top 15 richest people in the world."
"I have the manners of a doctor," he says.
Hubbard's talent for self-promotion has been as crucial to his business growth as his engineering skills. He has amassed two million followers on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, where his well-crafted videos blur the line between product demonstration and entertainment dedicated to apocalypse enthusiasts, notes the British daily.
Even his office serves as a stage: a Trump doll and MAGA hats sit next to branded products on shelves, while a loaded gun is within reach. Hubbard has taken additional precautions since his office was set on fire in what he suspects to be retaliation from a rival bunker builder in 2019.
Awaiting the Apocalypse
Not all of Hubbard's clients are wealthy. More and more middle-class and working-class Americans are finding their way to Sulphur Springs.
Steve Schelthoff, 61, came from Arizona to buy a $170,000 shelter after years of stockpiling gold, silver, and freeze-dried food. Schelthoff believes the Earth's magnetic field is weakening, the planet may tilt on its axis, flooding the US with water from the Gulf of Mexico, and that Joe Biden's four years of foreign policy have pushed the world toward nuclear war. "We live in a crazy world," he says. For him, the bunker is the final piece of an apocalyptic survival puzzle.
The politics of fear underpin this business. Hubbard says that "99%" of his American clients are conservative Christians worried about immigration, civil unrest, or nuclear war.
He speaks matter-of-factly about the threat of attacks, conflicts, and revolution. "If Trump had lost the elections, he would probably be dead, and we would be at war right now," he says.
Middle-income buyers finance their purchases with bank loans, considering them insurance against civil unrest, financial collapse, or another pandemic.
A 2023 survey estimated that Americans spent $11 billion on end-of-the-world preparations in a single year. Nearly one in three respondents claimed to have an apocalyptic plan.
Atlas also offers shelters as small as 9 square meters, designed for a family of four to survive underground for a few days.
An Extended Future on Mars for the Bunker Business?
For Hubbard, the apocalypse is not just a business but a conviction. He refers to a prediction that an Empire State Building-sized asteroid will pass near Earth in 2029. Additionally, he warns of airborne pathogens "that will destroy all humans they come into contact with."
He envisions a role for his bunkers in humanity's future beyond Earth, imagining Elon Musk's Boring Company building underground tunnels on Mars. "People can't live on the surface there," says Hubbard. "But underground is very good," he believes.
Meanwhile, global demand is on the rise. Hubbard has built shelters in the UK, Zurich, Switzerland, Dubai, Cyprus, Canada, and Poland, which mandated the construction of bunkers in all new public buildings starting in 2026.
In June, Hubbard visited Israel to study how shelters withstood Iranian missile barrages.
Switzerland, long a model in this field, already mandates that every household have access to a bunker.
Back in Texas, Hubbard ends his day with three bunker sales totaling 1.1 million dollars - his best sales day since Russia invaded Ukraine. He is proud, defiant, and never strays from his sales pitch. "The world can be a scary place, but business is booming," concludes Ron Hubbard.