Marc Lore’s $400 billion city ‘Telosa’ will accept its first residents via the application. People can expect the first settlers to move in by 2030. Approximately 50,000 residents will live in an egalitarian utopia by 2030. Lore, earlier this month shared his vision of Telosa.
The name of the city, Telosa, comes from an Ancient Greek word meaning “highest purpose”. He plans to give its citizens the best of education, healthcare, and transportation. Residents will get around in autonomous vehicles and the city will run on renewable energy, Telosa’s website promises. Lore calls his vision for the city “equitism” – a mash-up of equality and capitalism.
“The sole purpose of creating a city in the desert would be so it’s owned by the community, basically take all the appreciation of the land and give it back to the citizens,” Lore informed USA Today. “Taxes paid will go back to the city for infrastructure – roads, tunnels, and bridges – so everyone would know exactly where their money is going.” He said It’s an ambitious endeavour and an expensive one. Telosa’s website claims that the city will be funded by investors and philanthropists, as well as government grants and subsidies.
The first phase will cost $25 billion, with the total cost of the city surpassing $400 billion
The location of the city is still unknown. Few regions in the talk are Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Texas, etc. “Settlers” of the city will be chosen via a selection process. It focuses on diversity and inclusion, he said. He is working to determine the criteria with the help of a team of staff and volunteers. The team includes architects, economists, engineers, climate experts, and more.
While speaking to USA Today, Lore said that he also plans to build a venture capital fund for startups willing to relocate to Telosa. There are renderings of Telosa by the prestigious Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). One can see the streets are full of robots and autonomous vehicles. There is a high-speed rail system, and a futuristic skyscraper – dubbed “Equitism Tower.”
Telosa may be Lore’s most daring venture to date, but he has a long history of business endeavors. Lore co-founded Quidsi, the parent business of Diapers.com, in 2005. He later sold it to Amazon for $500 million six years later. Lore launched Jet.com after a brief time at Amazon, an e-commerce competitor that he sold to Walmart in 2016 for $3 billion in cash and stock. He was Walmart’s US e-commerce CEO for over four years before announcing his departure in January 2021 to focus on developing “a reformed version of capitalism.”
