- 3 months ago
Atlas Survival Shelters is the world’s largest bunker manufacturer, and it’s busier than ever – especially with orders from the ultrarich. We visited the Atlas warehouse in Texas to see what it takes to build luxury bunkers for billionaires.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00These men are installing bunkers that can cost half a million dollars.
00:08This is the fat boy. This is the largest bunker we make in one single piece.
00:16Atlas Survival Shelters is the world's largest bunker manufacturer.
00:22And their shelters promise to protect people from almost every type of disaster, even nuclear war.
00:29I don't want it to happen in my lifetime. Nobody does.
00:33But I need to make sure that the bunker will work when the time comes.
00:38These days, more people are prepping for disaster than ever before.
00:42For some reason, it's 99% Trump-supporting, conservative, Christian Republicans.
00:49But his fastest-growing customers are the ultra-wealthy.
00:53Let's go hang out and party!
00:55Yeah! In a bunker!
00:57Game rooms, indoor shooting ranges, even stripper poles.
01:02So, how did these bunkers go from fringe obsessions to mainstream?
01:07And who's actually buying them?
01:10At this factory in Texas, a team of 50 people cranks out bunkers priced between $20,000 and $20 million.
01:25Do I vet people that buy bunkers? Not really. I mean, is there a vetting process for buying a Rolls Royce?
01:37No, but you gotta have the money to pay for it, okay?
01:40That's Ron Hubbard. He owns and runs Atlas Survival Shelters out of its Texas headquarters.
01:46Another person calling for a bomb shelter. Yeah, hello, there's Ron.
01:51If you called me today and said, Ron, I want one of your big, fabulous bunkers, how long would it take?
01:56I usually will tell somebody it's about six months.
01:59One of his biggest bunkers is called the Fat Boy.
02:03This is pretty impressive.
02:05This bunker costs at least $300,000.
02:09This is how the ultra-rich have decided they want to survive the end of the world.
02:16It's got LED lights, built-in speakers, a beautiful sunken living room.
02:21You got a staircase, you come down the stairs right here.
02:25I mean, you're like, this is a bomb shelter. Look how tall and big it is.
02:30Today, Ron's company installs more bunkers than any other.
02:35His team is so busy, there's a wait list.
02:41I mean, there's bunkers everywhere, there's new equipment coming in, and this place is full.
02:48The clientele that I have are usually high-net-worth people, and they all want that VIP service.
02:55So they're like, hey, I don't want to wait in line, but guess what?
02:58Everyone who has a private jet is a VIP, and almost everyone who buys a bunker from me is a VIP.
03:04So I try to treat them all the same.
03:07When he takes an order, the only personal information he uses to track it is his customer's first name and state of residence.
03:16This bunker right here that says Barber on it is an 8x16.
03:20We never know the last name of the clients.
03:22So they could put a gun to my head and say, where are all the bunkers at?
03:25And I would be like, I don't know.
03:30Next, Ron has to decide the kind of bunker the customer needs.
03:34And that depends on the soil.
03:37The round ones are easier to bury really deep.
03:40While the square ones are more watertight and good for wetter ground.
03:45It's like a doctor giving medicine.
03:48You don't give every patient the same prescription.
03:52Today, his team is working on one of their most popular models, a 10 by 30 foot bunker, which goes for at least $150,000.
04:04It's made from American steel.
04:11So the steel will actually come on this long trailer here, and they'll actually cut their pieces to size.
04:22One of the first things they build are the walls.
04:25These are made in a crisscross pattern to prevent the steel from buckling under pressure when the bunker is buried.
04:33So they'll fit it up, as you can tell.
04:36And they're going to weld it out, and then it'll all stand up.
04:39And when we're done, we've basically created a big box.
04:43Then, the walls are welded from the inside and outside, so the bunker is watertight.
04:49The enemy to a bunker is water.
04:52If a bunker floods, it's ruined.
04:55This way, his shelters are able to withstand most natural disasters.
05:00If you're in Florida, your fear is a hurricane.
05:03If you're in California, your fears are earthquakes and wildfires.
05:07And if you're in other places, it might be a volcano erupting or Yellowstone exploding.
05:14Any time a global crisis hits, interest spikes.
05:18When the Ukraine war broke out, there was a big spike that lasted about two, three weeks.
05:23When Israel happened, there was a spike that lasted for about a week.
05:27When the COVID happened, there was a spike that lasted for about a month.
05:32In 2025, bunker sales soared again when news broke about Iran's advancing nuclear program.
05:39And this factory in Texas got busy.
05:46When I first started, we were literally cutting things on it with a single saw, one piece at a time.
05:51So now, of course, I've got automated saws.
05:54I've got laser tables.
05:55I've got plasma tables.
05:57I've got massive forklifts that can lift up to 36,000 pounds.
06:02Basically, what would take us 20 hours, we can probably do now in two hours.
06:07So our production is picking up.
06:10Finally, Ron coats his bunkers with a tar-based paint.
06:14The same stuff offshore oil rigs use.
06:18Because it lasts 150 years.
06:21People are hiring me to save their families' lives at the worst moment in their history of their family.
06:30And that would be thermonuclear war and a pandemic of a biblical event.
06:35It's real stuff.
06:37Survival bunkers date back hundreds of years, though early versions were usually above ground.
06:45During the Civil War, Americans built shelters from soil, wood, or stone for defense.
06:52But in 1941, the US started building more bunkers underground to protect from airstrikes.
06:59Japanese bombs rained on Pearl Harbor.
07:02Shortly after, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered a bunker be built under the White House.
07:08His successors then used it during bomb drills.
07:12President Eisenhower and his aides rushed to the underground shelter,
07:15which has complete communications, telephones, teletype, and radio.
07:19Most Americans were introduced to the concept during the Cold War.
07:23You know the places marked with the S sign?
07:26There are safe places to go when you hear the alarm.
07:30Congress even set aside $169 million to outfit public buildings with fallout shelters
07:38that could protect from nuclear radiation.
07:41That's also when tiny personal bunkers, built mostly out of concrete,
07:45started popping up in backyards across the country.
07:48But in the early 1960s, a man named Jay Swayze reimagined what a bunker could be.
07:55He built a 2,800-square-foot luxury house underground,
08:01with four bedrooms and murals to make it seem like you were outside.
08:06Ron went to visit for inspiration.
08:09Oh, he's got a shuffleboard in here, huh?
08:12The bunker was designed to be livable, and could protect against nuclear radiation.
08:18As global tensions continued to rise in the 1970s and 80s,
08:24a growing subculture of doomsday preppers emerged.
08:27More people joined the movement after 9-11.
08:31TV shows also helped bring survival culture into the mainstream.
08:36But Ron wasn't part of that crowd when he got into the bunker business.
08:47I had no plans to build one.
08:49I'd never even heard of the word a prepper.
08:52But in 2010, when a friend sent him a YouTube video of someone's bomb shelter,
08:58it changed everything.
09:00My entire life, I've literally been a welder.
09:03I was pretty damn good at it.
09:05I was like, God, man, I could do a better job myself than these guys.
09:09And then somebody says, hey, can you make me one?
09:11Can you make me one? Can you make me one?
09:13Then in 2012, a producer from National Geographic's reality show Doomsday Preppers called.
09:20They wanted to film an episode showing Ron building a bunker.
09:25Get no better than this.
09:26Hey, don't. Bring on doomsday, huh?
09:29My phone was ringing off the hook.
09:31Ron says these days building a survival shelter isn't just an emergency plan.
09:37Do we live for those spikes? They're a gift.
09:41My business is not based upon the spikes.
09:46My business is based upon new home construction.
09:49Contractors often ask him to build bunkers for new residential developments.
09:56This is what's going on.
09:5886 houses are being built with these secret Murphy shelves.
10:01You open this up and then this room, this is going to take you to the bomb shelter.
10:06This bunker is being utilized as a movie theater.
10:10It's even got a secret gun shelf over there.
10:14And demand isn't just spiking in the U.S.
10:18Ron's been consulting in the Middle East, where ongoing conflict has driven bunker sales.
10:25You'll get some Saudi prints or somebody like that and they'll have a 50,000 square foot bunker built that might cost $100 million.
10:33Mark Zuckerberg also has a bunker in Kauai worth $270 million.
10:40When you deal with a billionaire, you get contacted by some guy and they send you a nondisclosure.
10:47And then at some point, it may slip out who the actual customer is.
10:51That is how billionaires work.
10:53Vladimir Putin has a secret shelter beneath his Black Sea Palace near Gelencik, worth about $1.3 billion.
11:02The opulent complex, often referred to as Putin's palace, hides a bunker lying more than 160 feet underground and has about 6,500 square feet of living space.
11:14It includes tunnels reinforced with 15 inch thick concrete walls designed to withstand explosions.
11:23Elon Musk hasn't confirmed he owns one yet, but architects in Russia have designed a concept based on the Cybertruck.
11:31It's an 8,000 square foot structure meant to withstand nuclear threats and powered by solar and wind.
11:39It would house seven people and would reportedly cost over $850,000.
11:45Look at it from their point of view.
11:47They've made a billion dollars or a hundred million dollars.
11:50And in the instant, through a cyber attack, they could not have access to any of their money.
11:56So all they have is what tangibly they can touch.
12:01Analysts predict the shelter industry will continue to grow, reaching about $4.5 billion by 2033.
12:12Isn't this crazy?
12:14Even though the fat boy isn't Ron's most extravagant model, he still outfits it with high-end finishes.
12:21So of course, a full bathroom, matching granite counters for the vanity, flushing toilet, walk-in shower, hot and cold running water.
12:31The electrical appliances are mainly powered by lithium batteries that are charged by solar panels and wind turbines, or diesel generators.
12:42You've got to have a secondary source of power because the grid will go down.
12:49And you've got to be able to live off the grid in the shelter.
12:53And there are other hidden features.
12:56And this is really cool. Look at this.
12:58Everything has floor access to your storage.
13:02Under the floor, they leave a gap where they'll install two 300-gallon tanks to supply water for drinking and plumbing.
13:11That's enough for a family of four to survive for about three months.
13:16This bunker here actually has a walk-in closet.
13:20The shelter can comfortably sleep eight people, but can fit many more in an emergency.
13:27And this doghouse, which would lay down if you had to access it, leads to the escape tunnel.
13:36And it's held up with magnets, but it also gives you a place where your dogs can go in and sleep.
13:42So you have all the comforts of a home.
13:45But this is my largest one-piece shelter that I can deliver to your property.
13:52Ron says the Fatboy is also designed to protect you from nuclear radiation.
13:57He has dozens of YouTube videos about it.
14:00The video today is really for my bunker customers.
14:04Now, to get into one of my bunkers, you have to go through a bulletproof nuclear blast hatchet that's on the surface.
14:11Then, a series of stairs lead you down to a second door.
14:15And then when you get to the bottom of the stairs, you take a left or a right and you turn and you walk into a bunker.
14:23That L-shaped design is supposed to shield you from direct exposure to gamma rays.
14:30And once you make it inside, you'll need sustenance.
14:34So let's say we have complete nuclear obliteration of America.
14:41So you need to have enough food to make it to the next year's growing cycle.
14:46As long as you have that, you really wouldn't need to leave.
14:51And I do have clients who actually do live in their shelters, not full-time, but a lot of the time.
14:59Ron says ventilation isn't a problem if you decide to hunker down.
15:04This is the air pipe.
15:07Basically, this is the mouth, okay?
15:10Just like the human body.
15:11We gotta breathe in.
15:12So the air comes in one side and actually goes out the other.
15:16It's almost like, you know, you eat food.
15:18It goes in your mouth and then it comes out as **** out your ass, okay?
15:22He only uses Swiss and Israeli-made air systems.
15:26They are the most advanced because bunkers are so common there.
15:31In Israel, every home is legally required to have a built-in safe room.
15:37Switzerland has enough fallout shelters to house its entire population of nearly 9 million people.
15:45Bomb shelters is a way of life for a lot of the world.
15:48And Americans just haven't grasped onto the idea.
15:51Historically, preppers have been overwhelmingly right-leaning.
15:56Now, it doesn't mean that I haven't sold some shelters to some Democrats.
16:00It's just not very many.
16:01I can literally name the four on one hand.
16:05But data shows that since President Trump was first elected in 2016, more left-wing folks have joined the movement.
16:13Black Americans are prepping more too.
16:18That trend rose sharply after the death of George Floyd.
16:23With gun ownership among Black Americans spiking 58%.
16:28But most people don't have the resources to actually buy a survival home.
16:35So Ron is working on expanding access.
16:38The rock bottom we can get a shelter out now is $20,000.
16:42It's called the pre-cast shelter.
16:44They will actually pour the moles themselves and pop them out kind of like cupcakes
16:49and actually produce one every single day.
16:52This one can house four people in two bunk beds.
16:56There's nothing fancy about it.
16:58But it will give you an old-style fallout shelter from like the 1960s.
17:03And you'll only be in a shelter like that for maybe three or four days.
17:06As for the bigger bunkers.
17:08That's a big boy.
17:10That's 60,000 pounds right there.
17:12When they're ready, Ron's team drives them all the way from Texas to their destination.
17:17Alright, here we go.
17:19First bunker is lifted in the air.
17:21We're gonna swing it down.
17:24Some parts, like plumbing pipes and the escape tunnel, are installed on location.
17:30They add concrete to help the bunker withstand pressure from the surrounding soil.
17:35And as an extra layer of protection from a nuclear blast.
17:39And they bury it six feet below.
17:42To help keep the temperature inside at a comfortable 52 to 60 degrees.
17:47This one, worth $600,000, took Ron's team almost a week to install.
17:56So, how long will it last?
17:59Nothing is forever.
18:01But I'm making them to last more than a person's lifetime.
18:06Will they do that?
18:08I won't know because I won't be alive.
18:09Will they do that?
18:10I won't know because I won't be alive.
Be the first to comment