Which billionaire has the biggest superyacht? Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Virgin’s Richard Branson and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin all enjoy setting sail in show-off boats
If you want to find out what life is like aboard these multimillion-dollar yachts, some of them are available to rent out for a few nights or weeks at a time. For instance, chartering the yacht owned by Alphabet president Sergey Brin has cost past customers US$773,000 a week.
Why do Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison buy Hawaiian islands, James Bond’s old submarine car and build huge clocks in mountains? Because they can
Take a look at some of the most OTT yachts owned by tech billionaires.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is building his own 127-metre (416-feet) yacht
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison owns an 88-metre (288-foot yacht) named Musashi that he acquired in 2013
Ellison has owned several superyachts over the years, named Katana, Ronin and Rising Sun.
The Oracle co-founder also has a knack for competitive yacht racing, and helped to found and back a racing team, called Oracle Team USA, in 2000. The team has found success and won several prestigious titles over the years.
Inside Larry Ellison’s new US$80 million Palm Beach mansion
Ellison previously owned a bigger, 138-metre (454-foot) yacht called Rising Sun, which was designed specifically for the CEO in 2005
That yacht reportedly has 82 rooms, a cinema, a wine cellar and a basketball court. However, Ellison sold the Rising Sun to Geffen for a reported US$300 million.
Ellison’s yacht reportedly influenced the decision of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs to build his own boat
However, Jobs never set foot on the boat – the yacht was commissioned in 2008, but wasn’t completed until 2012, a year after his death.
When Jobs died in 2011, his yacht – along with his US$14.1 billion fortune – was inherited by his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of a social impact non-profit called the Emerson Collective. The 78-metre (256-foot) yacht, named Venus, is worth US$130 million.
Elon Musk’s love life mapped: the Tesla founder divorced 3 times, fell hard for Amber Heard and now has a baby with Grimes
Page owns a yacht named Senses, a US$45 million, 59-metre (194-foot) boat that he bought in 2011 from a New Zealand businessman. The yacht has a private beach club with a jacuzzi and sunbeds, both indoor and outdoor dining areas, and a helicopter pad. In addition to each owning a superyacht, they both own private planes as well.
Meanwhile, Brin owns a longer, 73-metre (240-foot) yacht that he bought for a cool US$80 million in 2011
Brin’s yacht is named Dragonfly – it’s reportedly the world’s fastest superyacht, and is equipped with a dance floor and open-air cinema. The boat also shares a name with Google’s once-secret project to launch a censored search engine in China. Google said in 2019 it had officially terminated the project.
The 5 billionaires competing to be China’s richest woman
Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström has gone through a succession of boats all named Ran – his most recent purchase is the seventh in the series
Zennström’s interest in yachts skews toward racing and competitive sailing, and his latest yacht, appropriately named Ran VII, is the most technologically advanced of all. The racing yacht uses electrical power, which Zennström says makes it “lighter, less drag, quieter, and most importantly it is environmentally friendly”.
The Ran racing team launched in 2008, and has won some prestigious regattas. The 12-metre (40-foot) Ran VII will also compete through the racing team, owned by Zennström and his wife, Catherine.
Barry Diller, chairman of digital media company IAC, co-owns a US$70 million yacht with his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg
The sailing yacht, named Eos, is 107 metres (350 feet) long with six bedrooms. The power couple has hosted many celebrities over the years – a few that have been spotted aboard Eos include model Karlie Kloss, actor Bradley Cooper, journalist Anderson Cooper and singer Harry Styles.
For Jim Clark, the co-founder of Netscape, one yacht has not been enough
Clark has owned boats for more than 30 years, and in 2012, he put up two of his sailing yachts for sale. Clark listed the boats for a combined US$113 million: the 41-metre (136-foot) Hanuman for US$18 million, and the 90-metre (295-foot) Athena for US$95 million. Clark also previously owned a 47-metre (155-foot) yacht named Hyperion, and currently also owns a racing yacht named Comanche.
Microsoft’s Charles Simonyi wanted a yacht good enough to live on
Simonyi worked at Microsoft until 2002, and oversaw the creation of Microsoft Office software. A few years before he left, Simonyi decided to purchase a yacht. He told the designer that wanted his yacht to be “home away from [his] home in Seattle”.
The product of that conversation in 1999 is Simonyi’s yacht named Skat, meaning “treasure” in Danish. The yacht measures 71 metres (233 feet) long, and is unique with its untraditional design and grey colour. Skat features a matching grey helicopter, a gym and motorcycles.
Opulent British billionaire Richard Branson owned a yacht until he sold it in September 2018
Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, bought the boat in 2009. He named it Necker Belle, a nod to his private Caribbean island, Necker Island.
The 32-metre (105-foot) catamaran sold for US$3 million – significantly lower than the US$9.6 million price Branson listed the boat for in 2014.
Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Business Insider
- After holidaying on David Geffen’s boat, Bezos is reportedly building his own 127-metre vessel – smaller than a boat designed by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison
- Designer Diane von Furstenberg shares a US$70 million yacht with husband Barry Diller; Apple’s Steve Jobs commissioned Venus, a boat he never got to set foot on