'It's sickening': Mark Zuckerberg faces backlash after gifting headphones to neighbors around his 11 homes under construction

Zuckerberg’s staff reportedly distributed the headphones recently, along with bottles of sparkling wine and boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, to residents in the Crescent Park neighborhood, according to The New York Times. The gesture was meant to ease frustration after nearly a decade of noise and disruption linked to his expanding residential compound.

Zuckerberg has spent more than $110 million over 14 years acquiring at least 11 homes in the area, Fortune reported. Neighbors say the once-quiet community of lawyers, executives, and Stanford University professors has been overtaken by construction equipment, private security, and frequent parties.

Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Photo from Joe Rogan's YouTube podcast

Several properties reportedly sit empty despite the region’s acute housing shortage, while others have been converted into guest houses, gardens, a pickleball court, a hydrofloor pool, and a school for Zuckerberg’s children and others, a use that may not comply with local zoning ordinances.

Underground additions include a 7,000-square-foot structure referred to by locals as a "billionaire’s bat cave."

Reactions online and among locals have been largely critical. "These a**holes live in such a different world than us, and it's f***ing sickening," one user wrote on X, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

Another commented: "Sorry for being an insufferable d****nozzle, here are some noise canceling headphones."

Others questioned: "At what point do the rich lose their sensibility and become narcissists?"

The project in Palo Alto echoes controversies surrounding Zuckerberg’s private estate in Kauai, Hawaii, where he has expanded holdings to nearly 1,000 acres. His family’s investment there now exceeds the island’s 2024 operating budget of $311 million, the New York Post reported.

Critics argue that the land purchases restrict ancestral access to family burial sites, while supporters highlight his multimillion-dollar donations to local nonprofits and the creation of well-paying jobs.