Athens is being considered, among other locations, by a network of Silicon Valley investors who have raised $500 million to build a technological utopia, according to Bloomberg.
The 40-square-kilometer city, which will initially consist of 250-1,000 homes, will offer governance with augmented artificial intelligence, an environment that will accelerate technological research and employer-friendly (including Elon Musk, as it is characteristically mentioned) labor laws.
This is the ambitious project of Praxis, which describes itself as a “sovereign network” and is funded by Silicon Valley investors.
Praxis’ co-founder and CEO, 29-year-old Dryden Brown, has already raised $500 million from investors and is currently searching for a location for the city. As part of a “world tour” that will begin on May 1 and run through May 20, it plans to visit Nuuk in Greenland, Buenos Aires, Rome, Athens, Auckland, Marrakech, Tokyo, Kiev and the capital of the Dominican Republic, Bloomberg reports.
Once a location is announced and the support of the host country is secured, Praxis will send a small delegation of supporters to move into 250 to 1,000 homes. Eventually, a larger city, based on a design by Zaha Hadid Architects, will be developed.
Praxis is part of a movement that promotes the idea of a “network state,” a term coined by investor Balaji Srinivasan. In his vision, ideologically aligned online groups could evolve and live in their own, self-governing territories.
It’s a technological variation on special economic zones, where private entities strike deals to develop outside the realm of the host country’s government. The idea has become popular among tech entrepreneurs seeking to escape what they see as burdensome regulatory and tax regimes.
Praxis’ investors include cryptocurrency firm GEM Digital, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Apollo Projects, Pronomos Capital, a venture fund backed by Peter Thiel, and venture capital firms Bedrock, Paradigm, Winklevoss Capital, and Day One Ventures.
