Opportunity in Building New Manufacturing-Focused Smart Cities
The mention of a 'Billionaire Backed California Forever' project to build a 'Manufacturing Town' points to a significant trend in large-scale urban development focused on specific economic sectors. This signals immense opportunities across various industries involved in creating a brand-new, purpose-built city. Key areas include:
- Smart City Technology Solutions: Providers of IoT infrastructure, AI-powered urban planning tools, intelligent transportation systems, smart grid energy management, and comprehensive digital civic services will be in high demand.
- Advanced Manufacturing & Automation: Companies specializing in Industry 4.0 technologies – robotics, automated production lines, AI for quality control, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and supply chain optimization – will be crucial for populating the town's manufacturing base.
- Sustainable Infrastructure & Construction: Demand for innovative, eco-friendly building materials, modular construction techniques, renewable energy systems (solar, wind), and advanced waste/water management solutions will be paramount for modern, sustainable urban development.
- Talent & Workforce Development: Services for recruiting, training, and relocating a skilled workforce tailored to the manufacturing needs of the new town, including vocational training programs and worker housing solutions.
- Urban Design & Community Development: Opportunities for architects, urban planners, real estate developers, and service providers to create integrated, livable communities that attract and retain residents and businesses within this specialized town.
Origin Reddit Post
r/technology
Billionaire Backed 'California Forever' Wants to Build a Manufacturing Town
Posted by u/upyoars•07/22/2025
Top Comments
u/JakOswald
I remember seeing all those “hard times make hard men, hard men make easy times, easy times make soft men, soft men make hard times”. And that shot was always directed at millennials and youn
u/turb0_encapsulator
if they couldn't get locals to approve housing, what the hell makes them think people will want a bunch of heavy industry?
u/solariscalls
Southpark did this song well
u/Krail
Not just a company town. A "special regulation zone" so that they can do human experimentation that would normally be extremely illegal!
Isn't the Torment Nexus great?
u/Pharmakeus_Ubik
What is the rest of Solano county going to do for water ?
u/Krail
So much of it has *already* been undone. They're only now threatening to build the company towns, but today's billionaires are far, far more obscenely wealthy and influential than the ones ou
u/flaming_bob
According to Peter Thiel, AI would somehow magically keep bad people out of the city. Unsurprisingly, he is rather vague on exactly how.
u/DAS_BEE
I honestly thought for a long time that was the driving force behind society. "I had it hard so I could make a better world for my kids" or the next generation.
This "I had to walk uphill bo
u/Georgesgortexjacket
Where everything is 5x more expensive than everywhere else.
u/octahexxer
Id rather not but the enture town was owned a by a "baron".
He owned everything....you had to buy from him to survive and the pay was so low you end in debt....my parents had stories about it
u/MaybeTheDoctor
They did win the fast food wars.
u/karma3000
Get paid in credits valid for use in any company store.
u/Supermonsters
You never know what could happen in NIGHHHHTT CITYYYYY
u/tsrich
Company crypto
u/Fitz911
Clown country
u/turb0_encapsulator
only a fool thinks the future of human labor is in manufacturing.
u/beesandchurgers
We dont have hamburgers? What?
u/flaming_bob
"what the hell makes them **think**"
I believe you answered your own question
u/Illustrious_Low_1188
In and out isn’t leaving. The heir is leaving because somehow the billionaire princess is oppressed or something
u/Dr-ShrimpPeurtoRico
Awwwww helllllllllllll naw
u/symonym7
*Two men enter, one man leaves!*
u/ConsiderationSea1347
They all think they will be in history books as saviors but they are even worse than the robber barons. They are literally destroying the planet because they want more yachts but somehow stil
u/SeeMarkFly
Just like an HOA but with armed police.
u/Anxious-Depth-7983
If he adheres to Yarvin's philosophy, then all of the workers are supposed to be happy with being enslaved to the oligarch. No wonder why he wants to build his own industrial compound. He'll
u/Popisoda
[ Removed by Reddit ]
u/DAS_BEE
They're only starting with cities, their ambitions aim much higher
E: are we doomed to relive the battles our great great grandparents fought? Are we doomed to fight the robber barons again?
u/octahexxer
There is several youtube channels who travels america on roadtrips and film the ruins and ghost towns of former company towns.
You figured they would know its a dead end by now.
u/MommyLovesPot8toes
I love how this comment section saw right through the deliberately-tepid article.
In theory this all sounds fine. Unless you know the real motivations of the California Forever group and th
u/Traditional-Hat-952
How very Parable of the Sower of them.
u/APeacefulWarrior
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store.
u/righteouspower
If you'd rather not share, that's fair, but curious where did you grow up?
u/Georgesgortexjacket
Where everything is 5x more expensive than everywhere else.
u/SidewaysFancyPrance
Yeah, there's a very clear push to have two castes in America: the ownership/ruling class that endlessly expands its holdings, and the labor class who are unlikely to ever own property. Incr
u/Classic_Emergency336
Because California is the best state in the USA.
u/allegate
My middle school science teacher is in that movie, one of the extras in the church.
u/MaybeTheDoctor
Is she named Karen ?
u/itsyaboidan
I bet it'll look beautiful at night. Maybe we could even name it "Night City"
u/octahexxer
Bioshock is based on reality....but reality is darker.
I grew up in a company town...its slavery
u/No_Size9475
Wonder how long until immigrant labor is turn over to them "to watch over the good ones" and run their plants?
u/Noblesseux
Yeah these are quite literally designed to be ruled as serfdoms and anyone who falls for it is an idiot.
u/ebbiibbe
Wouldn't this just be a huge terrorism target? It mak3s sense to spread production around for security and redundancy.
u/huggernot
Armed Drones, it's a tech town
u/CattywampusCanoodle
🎶[I owe my soul to the company store](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPW3YikDwEM)🎶
u/Orwells_Roses
They want to build burb-claves.
The term comes from the novel “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson, and if you’re interested in a sneak-peek of where the tech-bro billionaires would like to take
u/RoosterCogburn_1983
No skin in this game, but for how long will the other 6 states and Mexico allow California to drain so much water out of the Colorado river?
Water Rights Rulings aside, at some point people
u/hornetjockey
Will we also do all of our shopping at the company store?
u/Dhegxkeicfns
Breaking: Billionaires want to build permanent Company Towns, which greatly benefit billionaires.
u/grannyte
Yes you have to prepare for it and assume this time you will have drones chasing you. Good luck it's gonna suck
u/7th_Sim
Sounds like Cumberland, BC.
u/Vigorously_Swish
Henry Ford’s legacy lives on
u/tangledwire
This is fair enough. As they see us subjects only...
u/SeeMarkFly
Begun it has, the war on greed.
u/solariscalls
Southpark did this song well
u/Whats4dinner
Wasn’t there a video game like this? Bioshock? I wonder which version Curtis Yarvin has in mind.
u/Orwells_Roses
They want to build burb-claves.
The term comes from the novel “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson, and if you’re interested in a sneak-peek of where the tech-bro billionaires would like to take
u/ISAMU13
Better build a lot of cheap housing.
u/bleahdeebleah
Everyone go listen to the song "16 tons"
u/Fitz911
Clown country
u/killerparties
Seething flyover cope lmao
u/Stunning_Ad_6600
Technofuedalism here we come
u/TacoStuffingClub
Oh like Foxconn cities that have nets to keep people from suicide by jumping from windows? Gee. Seems great.
u/Classic_Emergency336
We just want to be healthy.
u/Paperdiego
Nice. Build it already
u/TacoStuffingClub
Oh like Foxconn cities that have nets to keep people from suicide by jumping from windows? Gee. Seems great.
u/beesandchurgers
Look up the history of company towns and then let us know if you still think it sounds like a good idea.
u/Whats4dinner
Wasn’t there a video game like this? Bioshock? I wonder which version Curtis Yarvin has in mind.
u/Illustrious_Low_1188
Yes, you are right.
Making things people use is a dead end
u/RefrigeratorWrong390
It’s not a company town. They are making a industrial zoned area for other companies
u/sw00pr
Techbros read *Snow Crash* and decide to make it reality. But not the good parts, like pizza and rocket skateboards.
u/SeeMarkFly
Begun it has, the war on greed.
u/Dhegxkeicfns
Breaking: Billionaires want to build permanent Company Towns, which greatly benefit billionaires.
u/righteouspower
If you'd rather not share, that's fair, but curious where did you grow up?
u/hypercomms2001
in a feudal society...More like a dictator.... And the residence will just be his serfs....
u/DAS_BEE
That quote always bugged me, like priming people to cheer for unnecessary hardship so the very rich can rob us blind and keep living their soft life. Ironic. Or just tragic and stupid and sel
u/ehtw376
Gilded age company towns are back in style!
u/1800abcdxyz
Scrypto, and it’s gonna be called something like DiarrheaCoin
u/qcubed3
Funny, because I see them in exactly the same way
u/moomoomilky1
will people be paid in company scripts?
u/MaybeTheDoctor
Is she named Karen ?
u/tangledwire
This is fair enough. As they see us subjects only...
u/ehtw376
Gilded age company towns are back in style!
u/Even-Smell7867
LOL. I bet they won't pay people enough to live there either while working in those factories.
u/Prior_Coyote_4376
Just so everyone is clear, you are under no obligation to consider Curtis Yarvin, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, or any of their followers human beings.
Seriously, you just don’t have to do that. H
u/DAS_BEE
That quote always bugged me, like priming people to cheer for unnecessary hardship so the very rich can rob us blind and keep living their soft life. Ironic. Or just tragic and stupid and sel
u/no1ofimport
So wants to bring back something like coal camps but without the coal?
u/Prior_Coyote_4376
Just so everyone is clear, you are under no obligation to consider Curtis Yarvin, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, or any of their followers human beings.
Seriously, you just don’t have to do that. H
u/Krail
Not just a company town. A "special regulation zone" so that they can do human experimentation that would normally be extremely illegal!
Isn't the Torment Nexus great?
u/flaming_bob
So they're gonna dump all their waste into the Sac River, thereby poisoning SF's water supply, but this is somehow "progress".
u/APeacefulWarrior
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store.
u/Dr-ShrimpPeurtoRico
Awwwww helllllllllllll naw
u/DrCopEsquire
Company town*
u/nycdiveshack
The first step is domestic surveillance and Peter Thiel with Palantir and investments in Clearview AI has that covered.
u/RefrigeratorWrong390
Why all the opposition? Seems like a good idea
u/qcubed3
Funny, because I see them in exactly the same way
u/7th_Sim
Didn't anyone in government play Bioshock?
We all know how this will end.
u/Wiochmen
At least in true feudalism there was a quid pro quo agreement. The Lord did care, to some extent, for the well-being of the tenant farmers. (If they die, then who's to tend the field or raise
u/Even-Smell7867
LOL. I bet they won't pay people enough to live there either while working in those factories.
u/tangledwire
We have too many of these asshat narcissistic billionaires who want to play God and 'shape' humanity/civilization just because they can afford to fuck us all.
u/basketballsteven
Company towns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town
It's not new. An odious idea in practice and an odious idea now.
Next the rich will want to pay in script.
u/big-papito
And one wonders why they are so triggered by the Superman movie. It's an ugly mirror of fascistic tech oligarchs
u/SeeMarkFly
Just like an HOA but with armed police.
u/ConsiderationSea1347
They all think they will be in history books as saviors but they are even worse than the robber barons. They are literally destroying the planet because they want more yachts but somehow stil
u/ConsiderationSea1347
We need to end the era of the billionaire.
u/1800abcdxyz
Scrypto, and it’s gonna be called something like DiarrheaCoin
u/flaming_bob
According to Peter Thiel, AI would somehow magically keep bad people out of the city. Unsurprisingly, he is rather vague on exactly how.
u/winnower8
Get paid in Ford-Dollars you can only spend at the Ford-Store!
u/allegate
My middle school science teacher is in that movie, one of the extras in the church.
Edit: he had us watch it for the message, yes, but also was quick to point out where he was in the scene l
u/SidewaysFancyPrance
They pay in ideological satisfaction. Like the guy who took his family to Russia because America was not racist enough for him, and he's heading off to the front lines to fight in Ukraine.
u/mr_greedee
and a HOA King\*
u/steel4sale
Go woke go broke 😆. Why would anyone with any sense go to CA only to have the state stab them in the back?
Even in and out burger is leaving…
u/knotatumah
Its a company town. They'll be paid in company script thats useless outside the town and effectively indebted to the company.
u/Wiochmen
At least in true feudalism there was a quid pro quo agreement. The Lord did care, to some extent, for the well-being of the tenant farmers. (If they die, then who's to tend the field or raise
u/DAS_BEE
Agreed. The battle should have been fought years or decades ago, and I hate to see us succumb to the same mistakes but with more powerful oligarchs.
But as the saying goes, the best time to
u/7th_Sim
Didn't anyone in government play Bioshock?
We all know how this will end.
u/octahexxer
Bioshock is based on reality....but reality is darker.
I grew up in a company town...its slavery
u/DAS_BEE
Agreed. The battle should have been fought years or decades ago, and I hate to see us succumb to the same mistakes but with more powerful oligarchs.
But as the saying goes, the best time to
u/bleahdeebleah
This version with [Jeff Beck and ZZTop that just crushes](https://youtu.be/J2aqvKY6zLc?si=4H4HbYK5FzZXV562)
u/whoibehmmm
Much more accurate headline.
u/WrongNumberB
See, THIS is the exactly kind of shit I come to Reddit for. I love that movie, and that’s amazing
u/JakOswald
Exactly. We should always be trying to make easier times, and that means not giving ground and remaining strong. We don’t sell out our children to make our lives easier. Children (of any gene
u/this_dudeagain
More like Blade Runner or Night City in cyberpunk.
u/voxadam
Does anyone else remember the time GE used the song *Sixteen Tons* in a "clean coal" commercial?
https://youtu.be/q6ueDHn2HTk
https://pophistorydig.com/topics/general-electric-coal-ad-2005/
u/turb0_encapsulator
if they couldn't get locals to approve housing, what the hell makes them think people will want a bunch of heavy industry?
u/nokinship
A company town with multiple industries and companies??
u/DAS_BEE
I honestly thought for a long time that was the driving force behind society. "I had it hard so I could make a better world for my kids" or the next generation.
This "I had to walk uphill bo
u/fiero-fire
All of these billionaires want company towns. We really are repeating history in the dumbest ways possible
u/steel4sale
Btw holy Gavin wants to bring back drilling oil to CA 🙏🏻
u/Reddit-for-all
They should do it! It will fail like these stupid ideas always do, and it will re-distribute some wealth to the builders.
u/SillyFalcon
Phoenix would be a scary, scary place if the water got shut off for a couple days.
u/Pharmakeus_Ubik
What is the rest of Solano county going to do for water ?
u/Illustrious_Low_1188
In and out isn’t shutting down in CA moron. They make billions off California
u/dedlobster
Woah! That’s awesome! It’s a great movie.
u/moomoomilky1
will people be paid in company scripts?
u/tsrich
Company crypto
u/itsyaboidan
I bet it'll look beautiful at night. Maybe we could even name it "Night City"
u/sp3kter
An oligarch wants to build one of Curtis Yarvins tech cities so they can rule over it like kings
u/JakOswald
I remember seeing all those “hard times make hard men, hard men make easy times, easy times make soft men, soft men make hard times”. And that shot was always directed at millennials and youn
u/DAS_BEE
They're only starting with cities, their ambitions aim much higher
E: are we doomed to relive the battles our great great grandparents fought? Are we doomed to fight the robber barons again?
u/Traditional-Hat-952
You can check out anytime you'd like but you can never leave.
u/Illustrious_Low_1188
Better jobs than what they have now?
u/octahexxer
There is several youtube channels who travels america on roadtrips and film the ruins and ghost towns of former company towns.
You figured they would know its a dead end by now.
u/zapporian
The colorado river is socal. Not norcal.
Norcal and the central valley has its own issues but that is NOT one of them.
CA also does NOT grow strawberries in the middle of the desert. They a
u/flaming_bob
Probably about as long as we keep letting Phoenix siphon it off to water the grass on their 100 or so golf courses.
Bear in mind, I'm not disagreeing with you.
u/karma3000
Get paid in credits valid for use in any company store.
u/PianistPitiful5714
I thought we were long since done with company towns. Seems not.
u/voxadam
Does anyone else remember the time GE used the song *Sixteen Tons* in a "clean coal" commercial?
https://youtu.be/q6ueDHn2HTk
https://pophistorydig.com/topics/general-electric-coal-ad-2005/
u/SillyFalcon
Phoenix would be a scary, scary place if the water got shut off for a couple days.
u/tangledwire
We have too many of these asshat narcissistic billionaires who want to play God and 'shape' humanity/civilization just because they can afford to fuck us all.
u/dedlobster
And watch the movie Matewan.
u/ISAMU13
Better build a lot of cheap housing.
u/mr_greedee
and a HOA King\*
u/Anxious-Depth-7983
If he adheres to Yarvin's philosophy, then all of the workers are supposed to be happy with being enslaved to the oligarch. No wonder why he wants to build his own industrial compound. He'll
u/accuratelyvague
Fences and guards. Keeps people out as well as in.
u/sw00pr
Techbros read *Snow Crash* and decide to make it reality. But not the good parts, like pizza and rocket skateboards.
u/winnower8
Get paid in Ford-Dollars you can only spend at the Ford-Store!
u/steel4sale
You can’t even have a hamburger place that wants to stay… so I guess FAFO?
And the highest energy cost of the US states making it none competitive - wait for another fire or energy blackout
u/Traditional-Hat-952
How very Parable of the Sower of them.
u/Krail
So much of it has *already* been undone. They're only now threatening to build the company towns, but today's billionaires are far, far more obscenely wealthy and influential than the ones ou
u/anotherpredditor
And the only restaurant is Taco Bell.
u/RoosterCogburn_1983
No skin in this game, but for how long will the other 6 states and Mexico allow California to drain so much water out of the Colorado river?
Water Rights Rulings aside, at some point people
u/designOraptor
Please let there be a company store.
u/knotatumah
Its a company town. They'll be paid in company script thats useless outside the town and effectively indebted to the company.
u/AuthorNathanHGreen
We actually do a lot to subsidize business such that they can manage to pay workers less than is required to actually live a life you'd voluntarily agree to. If you actually wanted to set up
u/dedlobster
Woah! That’s awesome! It’s a great movie.
u/WrongNumberB
See, THIS is the exactly kind of shit I come to Reddit for. I love that movie, and that’s amazing
u/DAS_BEE
The thing about drones is they're cheap and we can get them too
u/CattywampusCanoodle
🎶[I owe my soul to the company store](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPW3YikDwEM)🎶
u/ConsiderationSea1347
We need to end the era of the billionaire.
u/this_dudeagain
I don't think they're more wealthy, just more of them.
u/dope_sheet
"16 miles and what do you get..."
u/Stunning_Ad_6600
Technofuedalism here we come
u/hypercomms2001
in a feudal society...More like a dictator.... And the residence will just be his serfs....
u/sp3kter
An oligarch wants to build one of Curtis Yarvins tech cities so they can rule over it like kings
u/Successful-Daikon777
No wonder why it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to get into heaven.
I don’t believe in god, but I get it.
The greed of these billionaire
u/flaming_bob
Probably about as long as we keep letting Phoenix siphon it off to water the grass on their 100 or so golf courses.
Bear in mind, I'm not disagreeing with you.
u/dope_sheet
"16 miles and what do you get..."
u/JakOswald
Exactly. We should always be trying to make easier times, and that means not giving ground and remaining strong. We don’t sell out our children to make our lives easier. Children (of any gene
u/ebbiibbe
Wouldn't this just be a huge terrorism target? It mak3s sense to spread production around for security and redundancy.
u/whoibehmmm
Much more accurate headline.
u/anotherpredditor
And the only restaurant is Taco Bell.
u/SweetLoLa
How bout *no*?
u/DrCopEsquire
Company town*
u/bleahdeebleah
Everyone go listen to the song "16 tons"
u/huggernot
Armed Drones, it's a tech town
u/djm19
Normally I am not a fan of building fresh towns. But this one has actual density planned for it. The cries of “we should just build the homes in San Francisco and LA” are true, but both citie
u/kendo31
History repeating itself is so much fun
u/flaming_bob
So they're gonna dump all their waste into the Sac River, thereby poisoning SF's water supply, but this is somehow "progress".
u/flaming_bob
"what the hell makes them **think**"
I believe you answered your own question
u/dedlobster
And watch the movie Matewan.
u/Supermonsters
You never know what could happen in NIGHHHHTT CITYYYYY
u/hornetjockey
Will we also do all of our shopping at the company store?
u/Traditional-Hat-952
You can check out anytime you'd like but you can never leave.