Starbase and Ethno-cities

In the last decade, a new breed of Silicon Valley elite-armed with unprecedented wealth, influence, and technological reach-has moved beyond simply shaping the digital world. Today, these “tech bros” are leveraging their resources to carve out enclaves of power both online and in the physical world, building what amount to modern fiefdoms with ambitions that extend well beyond traditional business ventures.

Historically, tech titans influenced government through buying platforms and lobbying. But now, figures like Elon Musk are bypassing government completely by creating his own, a shift from the days when corporate power was exercised primarily through backchannels or covert influence. Platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), now under Musk’s control, have become essential infrastructure for public debate and even government communication, yet they remain private assets, subject to the whims of their owners. Why not bring that into the real world?

The past decade has seen a surge in tech-funded projects to build private cities-planned communities governed not by elected officials, but by corporate entities or their proxies. The most prominent example is Starbase, Texas, where SpaceX employees now serve as mayor and commissioners, following a company-backed vote that incorporated the area as its own city. With 216 out of 283 eligible voters (mostly SpaceX employees) supporting the move, Musk’s company has effectively established a company town, controlling both the economic and political life of its residents.

Starbase is not an isolated case. Across the globe, projects like Afropolitan, Colosa, Praxis, and Prospera are piloting similar models-private enclaves managed by the world’s wealthiest individuals, designed to operate with minimal interference from traditional governments. These “free private cities” promise innovation, efficiency, and a break from bureaucratic red tape, but also raise serious concerns about accountability, transparency, and the erosion of democratic norms.

Perhaps the most ambitious of these projects is California Forever, a planned city in Solano County, California, backed by a who’s-who of Silicon Valley investors including Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, and Laurene Powell Jobs. With more than $900 million in funding and plans for 400,000 residents, California Forever aims to create a model community-densely built, green, and affordable, but also tightly controlled by its founding corporation. The project’s backers see it as a solution to California’s housing and regulatory woes and it fits nicely into Ezra Klein’s “abundance” model. But what this really represents is the dangerous shift of government into private hands.

They are taking executive control over systems and infrastructure that were once public goods. The privatization of key digital and physical infrastructure means that decisions about free speech, housing, policing, and even urban planning are increasingly made by a handful of unelected, unaccountable individuals.

This trend is not without its critics. Concerns abound about the potential for abuse of power, lack of transparency, and the creation of exclusive enclaves that exacerbate inequality. The very infrastructure of government-already fragile and outdated in many places-is now vulnerable to disruption or capture by private interests, raising questions about the long-term viability of democratic governance in the face of concentrated tech power.

What began as speculative ventures-floating cities, digital utopias, and “charter cities”-is rapidly becoming a dangerous reality. These projects are not isolated experiments, but pilots for a new model of governance in which the ultra-wealthy bypass traditional checks and balances to build societies in their own image. As tech billionaires like Elon Musk pour billions into these ventures, the line between private ambition and public policy grows ever thinner.

The question is no longer whether Silicon Valley’s elite can buy influence-they are now buying the very structures of governance itself. The implications for democracy, accountability, and the public good are profound-and the stakes, as these new fiefdoms move from the digital to the physical world, have never been higher.

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In solidarity,

Rynn