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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

Larry Ellison and Jeff Bezos: who has the biggest boat? Photo: AFP, AP
The world is naturally fascinated by billionaires, and their gilded world of luxurious lifestyles, multimillion-dollar car collections and cutting-edge gadgets.
Some billionaires, like the notoriously eccentric Elon Musk and soon-to-be-single Bill Gates, buy private planes to take control of the open skies – others purchase humongous superyachts to traverse the open seas.
Oracle owner Larry Ellison’s motor yacht Rising Sun competed at the 33rd America’s Cup in 2010. Photo: AFP
From Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, many leaders in tech have created their own mini holiday hubs at sea, decking their boats with amenities like gyms, spas, pools, nightclubs and cinemas.

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

David Geffen’s superyacht. Photo: Flickr
Bezos has long been interested in yachts. In 2019, he was spotted aboard entertainment mogul David Geffen’s superyacht. According to a new book, he is now building a vessel so massive it has an additional “support yacht” with its own helipad.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison owns an 88-metre (288-foot yacht) named Musashi that he acquired in 2013

Larry Ellison has owned several superyachts. Photo: @AffirmationSpot/Twitter

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.

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Ellison previously owned a bigger, 138-metre (454-foot) yacht called Rising Sun, which was designed specifically for the CEO in 2005

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a fan of life on the high seas. Photo: AP Photo

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 boat, Musashi, is a sister ship to the yacht of another billionaire, former Sears CEO Eddie Lampert. However, the yacht, named Fountainhead, is often mistaken for belonging to billionaire investor Mark Cuban. “The guy who owns the boat tells everyone that it’s mine,” Cuban told Page Six in 2016. “It’s so crazy … I don’t even own a boat.”

Ellison’s yacht reportedly influenced the decision of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs to build his own boat

Apple CEO Steve Jobs at an event in 2009. Photo: Getty

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.

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Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are two of the richest people in the world – at No 8 and No 9, respectively, at the time of writing – and both billionaires are known to splurge
Google co-founders Sergey Brin, right, and Larry Page are both known to dig deep for the finer things in life. Photo: AP

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

Sergey Brin’s Dragonfly superyacht. Photo: YouTube

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.

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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

Co-founder and CEO of Skype Niklas Zennström. Photo: AP

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

Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller own a US$70 million superyacht. Because they can. Photo: EPA

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

Netscape Communications Corporation chairman and co-founder Jim Clark. Photo: AP

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

Charles Simonyi, a former software developer at Microsoft, also trained to fly to space. Photo: EPA

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

Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic. Credit: Virgin Galactic

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.

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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