Mark Zuckerberg purchases a 440-acre estate located in County Waterford, Ireland.

      Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have purchased Strancally Castle along with its 440-acre estate in County Waterford as an Irish base. He is the third tech billionaire to acquire a significant estate in Ireland since 2021, following John Collison of Stripe and James Dyson.

      Zuckerberg has acquired a castle in Ireland. Together with Priscilla Chan, he has taken over Strancally, a Gothic house built in 1830, set on 440 acres in County Waterford, to serve as a base for their visits to the country.

      The purchase price has not been disclosed. The transaction occurred off-market, and the Irish Times, which was the first to report on it, estimates the value to be between €20 million and €30 million.

      He is the third technology billionaire to make such a purchase in the past five years. In 2021, John Collison, co-founder of Stripe, bought the 1,100-acre Abbey Leix estate in County Laois for around €20 million, and in 2024, James Dyson acquired Ballynatray for approximately €30 million, located a few miles down the same river valley.

      Meta announced the connection itself. A spokesperson for the company mentioned that the family looks forward to spending time in Ireland, “where Meta maintains its international headquarters.”

      This headquarters is an important aspect of the company. Meta established its Dublin campus in Ballsbridge in 2023, within the former offices of Allied Irish Banks, and conducts a significant portion of its non-U.S. business from Ireland.

      Ireland is also where Meta is regulated. The Irish Data Protection Commission serves as its main regulator under GDPR, and Meta has incurred more than half of all fines levied under this regulation.

      The timing of this purchase is more problematic than illegal. This week, a whistleblower from Meta testified that Zuckerberg had been dishonest about the company’s commitment to child safety, in an ongoing trial.

      The castle itself has an interesting history. Strancally was constructed for John Keily, a Conservative MP, by architects James and George Richard Pain, notable for its size, which creates a four-and-a-half-minute walk between the dining room and the kitchen.

      The sellers, Michael Alen-Buckley, a co-founder of the investment firm RAB Capital, and his wife Giancarla, are departing after 25 years. They restored the property in the early 2000s and express satisfaction that it will be preserved.

      None of this constitutes a corporate transaction, and that is somewhat the point. The private wealth of American tech founders is settling in the same small country that accommodates their European operations, tax base, and regulatory oversight.

      Ireland has faced questions in the past about whether it can balance both roles effectively. The issue of whether it can properly enforce GDPR on companies that employ thousands of its citizens remains unresolved, and the acquisition of a castle in Waterford does not alter that situation.