microsoft ceo yacht

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Inside Paul Allen’s Former Yacht on Sale for $90 Million

The estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is offering the sale of his 303-foot-long superyacht , Tatoosh , for a cool $90 million, according to Dirt . If you’re thinking those stats aren’t impressive enough for the billionaire and tech magnate , well, you’d be right. Tatoosh , which is currently the 60th largest yacht worldwide, was just Allen’s secondary vessel. His main yacht, Octopus , sold last year for $325 million and stretches 414 feet long, making it the 20th largest yacht in the world.

As for Tatoosh , the recently-listed vessel was custom-built by German shipyard Nobiskrug in 2000 for fellow American tech mogul Craig McCaw before being bought by Allen the following year for an estimated $100 million. The craft was put up for sale shortly after Allen’s death in 2018, but was taken off the market for an extensive refitting that was completed last year.

The dining room aboard the ship. 

Become an AD PRO member for only $25 $20 per month.

Inside the vessel, 11 staterooms can accommodate up to 19 guests with access to a lengthy list of lavish amenities that includes a heated swimming pool with a hydraulic-powered mosaic floor that can raise and lower, a parquet floor salon complete with a limestone fireplace and a bar, a movie theater adorned in red velvet, a beauty salon, a gym, two helicopter pads, a sunbathing and diving area decked out with a blue-tiled spa, bulletproof windows, a fleet of jet skis, multiple 43-foot tenders, and a crew of 31 to oversee it all. The owner’s quarters include a private deck, two dressing rooms, and an observation lounge with a private galley, all spanning across two of the ship’s five decks, which are all accessible via elevator.

The owner’s stateroom aboard the ship. 

To maintain and staff the superyacht, which will be one of the largest yachts on display during the Monaco Yacht Show later this month, potential new owners will have to be prepared to pay $9 to $10 million per year in addition to the hefty price tag. Tatoosh is being represented by the Monaco-based yachting company Fraser.

Please use a modern browser to view this website. Some elements might not work as expected when using Internet Explorer.

• Landing Page
• Luxury Yacht Vacation Types
• Corporate Yacht Charter
• Tailor Made Vacations
• Luxury Exploration Vacations
• View All 3697
• Motor Yachts
• Sailing Yachts
• Classic Yachts
• Catamaran Yachts
• Filter By Destination
• More Filters
• Latest Reviews
• Charter Special Offers
• Destination Guides
• Inspiration & Features
• Mediterranean Charter Yachts
• France Charter Yachts
• Italy Charter Yachts
• Croatia Charter Yachts
• Greece Charter Yachts
• Turkey Charter Yachts
• Bahamas Charter Yachts
• Caribbean Charter Yachts
• Australia Charter Yachts
• Thailand Charter Yachts
• Dubai Charter Yachts
• Destination News
• New To Fleet
• Charter Fleet Updates
• Special Offers
• Industry News
• Yacht Shows
• Corporate Charter
• Finding a Yacht Broker
• Charter Preferences
• Questions & Answers
• Add my yacht

• Yacht Charter Fleet

Paul Allen: Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist and superyacht visionary passes away

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on X
• Share via Email

By Rebecca Bradbury   16 October 2018

Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with his high school friend Bill Gates, has died aged 65 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He will be remembered in the yachting industry for owning one of the world’s first go-anywhere expedition yachts: the 126m/300ft  superyacht OCTOPUS .

Allen’s company Vulcan said in a statement that he died on Monday. Earlier this month Allen revealed the cancer he was treated for in 2009, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, had returned.

Allen and Gates founded Microsoft in 1975. He served as the company’s executive vice-president of research and new product development until 1983, when he left for health reasons. He stayed as a major shareholder and member of the board.

His Microsoft co-founder said: “I am heartbroken by the passing of one of my oldest and dearest friends… Personal computing would not have existed without him.”

As well as playing a vital role in developing the PC, the technology pioneer also gave more than $2bn to a wide range of interests, including ocean health, homelessness and advancing scientific research.

He owned the Lurssen superyacht OCTOPUS which, at 126 metres, was the largest yacht in the world at the time of her launch in 2003. Alongside being equipped with every luxury imaginable, she also features state-of-the-art technology for music recording and research expeditions.

Indeed, he was the first superyacht owner to view his vessel as more than just a pleasure palace. He tapped into the opportunities the yacht could bring for ocean research and conservation and, for this, he can be considered as an early pioneer of the expedition yacht, which today is in vogue among new owners.

Highlights of the yacht, which is now the 14th largest in the world, include a swimming pool, a basketball court, and interior styling from award-winning Jonathan Quinn Barnett. While, for research and exploration, two helicopters are stored in the hangar on the main deck, and the tender garage houses a 10-person submarine.

As a research vessel, the motor yacht and her expert crew were involved in the 2015 discovery of the wreck of Japanese ship MUSASHI, one of the biggest warships of the Second World War.

OCTOPUS was also a member of the Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue (AMVER) and played an important part in a number of rescue missions.

Equipped with every luxury imaginable, OCTOPUS also features state-of-the-art technology for music recording and research expeditions

In July 2012, Allen loaned the yacht to the Royal Navy free of charge, so they could attempt to retrieve the bell from the wreck of battlecruiser HMS Hood which sunk during World War II in the Denmark Strait.

Four months later, she rescued a sailor who got into difficulties 645 miles south-west of San Diego. Read OCTOPUS recovers bell from HMS Hood and  Paul Allen unearths WW2 Japanese battleship Musashi for more information on these two missions.

The billionaire also hosted a number of parties aboard OCTOPUS at the Cannes Film Festival . The lavish celebrations will be remembered for their themes, such as ‘Bollywood’ and ‘Shakespeare’, as well as their star-studded guest lists.

In May, at the 2018 festival, Gates hosted one of his legendary parties aboard his other yacht, the 92m/303ft superyacht TATOOSH . The theme was ‘An Evening in Casablanca’ and he even took to the stage with his band to entertain the A-list guests in attendance (see Instagram gallery below).  

Built by Nobiskrug in 2000, TATOOSH features elegant interior styling from Terence Disdale alongside a host of cutting-edge entertainment and leisure facilities designed to offer the ultimate in at-sea living.

Back in 2016, the superyacht made headlines when her anchor damaged a coral reef the size of an Olympic swimming pool in the Cayman Islands. But Allen led an emergency restoration plan to help speed the recovery of the injured coral, restoring over 1,592 hard and soft corals and sponges.     

M/Y OCTOPUS and M/Y TATOOSH are not available for charter. But for more information on chartering a large yacht, speak to your preferred charter broker .

Large superyachts available for charter:

90m Corsair Yachts 2007 / 2021

92m Neorion 2004 / 2023

134m Fincantieri 2011

99m Canadian Vickers 1943 / 2020

90m Lurssen 2010 / 2024

95m Lurssen 2014

89m Oceanco 2017

92m Feadship 2016

• READ MORE ABOUT:

RELATED STORIES

Previous Post

M/Y ‘Here Comes the Sun’ opens for Mexico yacht charters

8 top superyachts open for Thanksgiving charters

EDITOR'S PICK

Latest News

21 August 2024

19 August 2024

13 August 2024

• See All News

Yacht Reviews

• See All Reviews

Charter Yacht of the week

Join our newsletter

Useful yacht charter news, latest yachts and expert advice, sent out every fortnight.

Please enter a valid e-mail

Thanks for subscribing

Featured Luxury Yachts for Charter

This is a small selection of the global luxury yacht charter fleet, with 3697 motor yachts, sail yachts, explorer yachts and catamarans to choose from including superyachts and megayachts, the world is your oyster. Why search for your ideal yacht charter vacation anywhere else?

136m | Lurssen

from $4,446,000 p/week ♦︎

115m | Lurssen

from $2,895,000 p/week ♦︎

85m | Golden Yachts

from $1,000,000 p/week ♦︎

88m | Golden Yachts

from $1,223,000 p/week ♦︎

84m | Feadship

from $1,111,000 p/week ♦︎

93m | Feadship

from $1,556,000 p/week ♦︎

Maltese Falcon

88m | Perini Navi

from $490,000 p/week

122m | Lurssen

from $3,000,000 p/week

As Featured In

The YachtCharterFleet Difference

YachtCharterFleet makes it easy to find the yacht charter vacation that is right for you. We combine thousands of yacht listings with local destination information, sample itineraries and experiences to deliver the world's most comprehensive yacht charter website.

San Francisco

• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Follow us on Instagram
• Find us on LinkedIn
• Add My Yacht
• Affiliates & Partners

Popular Destinations & Events

• St Tropez Yacht Charter
• Monaco Yacht Charter
• St Barts Yacht Charter
• Greece Yacht Charter
• Mykonos Yacht Charter
• Caribbean Yacht Charter

Featured Charter Yachts

• Maltese Falcon Yacht Charter
• Wheels Yacht Charter
• Victorious Yacht Charter
• Andrea Yacht Charter
• Titania Yacht Charter
• Ahpo Yacht Charter

Receive our latest offers, trends and stories direct to your inbox.

Please enter a valid e-mail.

Thanks for subscribing.

Search for Yachts, Destinations, Events, News... everything related to Luxury Yachts for Charter.

Yachts in your shortlist

• GTA 5 Cheats
• Print on a Chromebook
• Nothing Phone 2 Review
• Best YouTube TV Alternatives
• Asus ROG Ally vs. Steam Deck
• Gameshare on Nintendo Switch

Microsoft co-founder’s megayacht sails onto the market for a cool $330M

The megayacht once owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is on the market.

Featuring two helicopter pads, 13 guest rooms, and even a 10-person submarine, it’s no surprise to learn that the 126-meter-long vessel known as Octopus has a price tag of 295 million euros (about $332 million).

Allen, who died from cancer in 2018 at 65, owned a number of yachts, but Octopus, built by German shipbuilder Lurssen, was the biggest of them all.

Listed for sale by Monaco-based Fraser Yachts after having completed a refit that took eight months, Octopus can accommodate up to 26 guests. Amenities include a large cinema and a recording studio with a specially designed floor to damp out the low-frequency noise and vibration, a private observation lounge above the owner’s deck, a beach club, pool, gym, and spa/sauna, as well as “an array of water toys.”

#breakingnews The iconic 126m / 414’ OCTOPUS is now for sale with Fraser. The Lurssen built superyacht sets the benchmark for luxury exploration and global cruising. Learn more: https://t.co/kTgBxHErtU #oneofakind #bestofthebest #luxurylifestyle pic.twitter.com/1bjSttiALt — Fraser Yachts (@FraserYachts) September 6, 2019

Allen used the vessel for occasional celebrity parties whose guests reportedly included Mick Jagger and U2, among others.

But the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist also lent it out for research and scientific expeditions in far-flung places.

In 2015, for example, an Octopus expedition succeeded in locating the Japanese World War II battleship Musashi — considered as one of the mightiest battleships ever constructed — at a depth of more than half a mile in the Sibuyan Sea off the coast of the Philippines.

At the time, Allen described the discovery as “an important milestone in the annals of World War II naval history.”

Octopus is currently anchored in Antibes in the south of France as it waits to see who, if anyone, has pockets deep enough to want to call it their own.

Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975 after the pair started marketing a BASIC programming language interpreter that Allen called Micro-Soft.

The company grew to transform the personal computing space, with Allen’s wealth increasing rapidly as Microsoft expanded its business empire. Like Gates, he became a billionaire in his early 30s, giving him access to life’s luxuries that later included Octopus, a vessel that first took to the water in 2003.

• Emerging Tech

For the last few years, Apple’s macOS releases have been interesting, if not particularly exciting. But that’s all set to change this year with the launch of macOS Sequoia, and it’s all thanks to one feature: Apple Intelligence.

Apple’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform has the potential to completely change how you use your Mac on a daily basis. From generating images, rewriting emails, and summarizing your audio recordings to revamping Siri into a much more capable virtual assistant, Apple Intelligence could be the most significant new macOS feature in years.

If we're going strictly by the numbers, the Ryzen 9 9950X is the best processor you can buy. It tops performance charts almost across the board, as you can read in our Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X review. In practice, the CPU isn't as impressive as it could be. Not only does it arrive much more expensive than the competition but AMD is competing with itself when it comes to CPUs like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

I expected the Ryzen 7 7800X3D to continue to stay relevant in this new era of Zen 5 CPUs. I didn't, however, expect it to be a flat-out better choice for those looking for the best gaming processor. Although the Ryzen 9 9950X can top productivity charts, AMD's last-gen gaming monster remains the performance king when you're chasing frames. Specs

According to a report from The Information citing two Meta employees, Meta has canceled its plans for a premium mixed-reality headset. It seems the company told Reality Lab employees to halt work on the product this week after executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, reviewed the project.

It's uncertain whether the device was destined to be a sequel to the Meta Quest Pro or a completely new product, but it's clear that developing a competitor for the Apple Vision Pro was the purpose of the project.

latest in US News

Trump supporters rip Kamala Harris for showing off border walls...

'Curb Your Enthusiasm' star trolled online after husband RFK Jr....

Dog tossed down NYC high-rise trash chute by sicko and found...

Unhinged woman assaults 3 Italian tourists in NYC

How to spend the perfect day in NYC — according to a lot of...

Man fatally knifed by career criminal with 9 prior arrests —...

LI mom accused of meth-fueled, wrong-way crash that killed son,...

First time homebuyers in this state get $30K grant -- but US...

Ship belonging to estate of microsoft billionaire topples over, injuring 25.

A massive ship owned by the estate of billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen toppled over Wednesday from strong winds in a Scottish dry dock, sending 15 people to the hospital.

Twenty-five people were injured when the 250-foot ship tipped over from its holding around 8:30 a.m. at Imperial Dock in Leith, Edinburgh, the Scottish Ambulance Service said.

Five ambulances, an air ambulance and three trauma teams responded to the dock, eventually bringing 15 people to hospitals, the Telegraph reported.

Officials have not disclosed their conditions.

An additional 10 people were treated for injuries at the dock.

Pictures shared on social media show the colossal ship leaning at a 45-degree angle.

The research vessel owned by Allen’s estate had previously been used in deep-water searches for shipwrecks and war graves at sea but was put into long-term moorage in 2020 due to “operation challenges” during the COVID pandemic.

Allen co-founded Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975. He was ranked the 44th-wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $20.3 billion just before he died in 2018 at the age of 65.

The billionaire died as a result of septic shock three weeks after announcing the return of his non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a type of cancer that had been in remission for about a decade.

His ship, named Tatoosh, is considered the 60th-largest superyacht in the world . At one point, Allen owned a second mega yacht, called Octopus, which was the 20th-largest ship in the world.

The coast guard also arrived at the docks to provide assistance following the shocking incident. Local politicians in Leith shared their good wishes for those injured in the incident on social media while urging others to avoid the area.

“Emergency services are responding to a major incident at Leith docks — a ship has been dislodged from its holding in strong winds. Terrifying for those on board, my thoughts are with those who’ve been injured & hope everyone recovers quickly,” Leith councilor Adam McVey wrote on Twitter.

Emergency services are responding to a major incident at Leith docks- a ship has been dislodged from its holding in strong winds. Terrifying for those on board, my thoughts are with those who’ve been injured & hope everyone recovers quickly. Please avoid area. pic.twitter.com/aREtG80Gq1 — Cllr Adam McVey (@adamrmcvey) March 22, 2023

City of Edinburgh Council Leader Cammy Day said he was “deeply concerned” by the incident and wished those injured a speedy recovery.

The National Health Service Lothian urged people to avoid the hospital if possible due to an influx of patients being sent from the docks.

“We’re on standby to receive a number of patients at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh’s A&E department following a major incident at the Imperial Docks in Leith,” Jacquie Campbell, chief officer of acute services at NHS Lothian, said in a statement.

“We have been reviewing the current capacity at RIE, with support from other sites, to prepare to accommodate these patients,” Campbell said.

“Given the expected pressure on the site, we urge people not to attend A&E at the RIE unless it’s an emergency.”

Advertisement

Entrepreneur and investor Paul Allen was best known for being one of the co-founders of Microsoft with Bill Gates.

(1953-2018)

Who Was Paul Allen?

Born on January 21, 1953, in Seattle, Washington, Paul Allen met fellow Lakeside School student and computer enthusiast Bill Gates when Allen was 14 and Gates was 12. Less than a decade later, in 1975, college drop-outs Allen and Gates founded Microsoft. Allen resigned after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 1983 and continued to pursue other business, research and philanthropic opportunities.

How Did Paul Allen and Bill Gates Meet?

By the time Allen arranged for Microsoft to buy an operating system called Q-DOS for $50,000, the company had already supplied software for emerging companies such as Apple and Commodore. Gates and Allen reinvented Q-DOS as MS-DOS and installed it as the operating system for IBM's PC offering, which dominated the market after its release in 1981.

Microsoft and Vulcan Ventures

As Microsoft grew and its stock steadily rose, Allen's share in the company he co-founded made him a billionaire at just over 30 years of age. In 1983, Allen, known as the "idea man" counterpart to Gates' "man of action," resigned from Microsoft after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. After undergoing several months of radiation treatment, his health was restored.

Post Microsoft, Allen began to concentrate on other projects, hoping to find the next big idea lurking somewhere just out of sight. In 1986, he set up a company called Vulcan Ventures to research possible investments; to that end, he founded a Silicon Valley think tank in 1992 called Interval Research. Through Interval Research and Vulcan Ventures, Allen began to put his long-term dream of a wired world society — in which virtually everyone is online — into practice.

Diverse Investments

His investments were diverse: America Online, SureFind (an online classified ads service), Teluscan (an online financial service), Starwave (an online content provider), hardware, software and wireless communications. From 1994 to 1998, Allen built an infrastructure of well over 30 different companies in pursuit of his "wired world" strategy. With Vulcan's 1998 purchases of Marcus Cable and more than 90 percent of Charter Communications, Allen became the owner of the nation's seventh-largest cable company. In 1999, he invested nearly $2 billion in the RCN corporation, bringing his total holdings in the cable and Internet businesses to over $25 billion.

He also invested a good deal in the production of interactive media and entertainment. In total, Allen had major investments in over 100 "new media" companies. In 1993, he acquired 80 percent of Ticketmaster until he sold over half of his stock to the Home Shopping Network (HSN) in 1997. In late 1999, Allen and Vulcan Ventures agreed to fund POP.com, an Internet entertainment company formed as a partnership between two prominent production companies: Imagine Entertainment, founded by director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, and DreamWorks SKG, founded by entertainment giants Steven Spielberg , Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen .

Allen, already an investor in DreamWorks, reportedly invested $50 billion in the company, which aims to create and distribute short features exclusively on the Internet. POP.com was set to debut in the spring of 2000, but failed to get off the ground. Allen has also invested in Oxygen Media, a highly-touted company co-founded by Oprah Winfrey and dedicated to producing cable and Internet programming for women.

Other Interests: Seattle Seahawks, Experience Music Project & More

Allen's other personal and philanthropic interests included sports (he owned the NBA's Portland Trailblazers and the NFL's Seattle Seahawks) and music. On June 23, 2000, his Experience Music Project, a $250 million interactive rock 'n' roll museum designed by the architect Frank O. Gehry , opened in Seattle. Allen co-founded EMP with his sister, Jody Allen Patton, who serves as the museum's president of the board of trustees. In April 2003, he announced he would be spending $20 million to build the Science Fiction Experience, which opened in the summer of 2004. The museum was billed as "entertaining and thought-provoking exhibits and programs." Allen had also established philanthropic foundations for the causes of medical research, visual and performing arts, community service, and forest preservation.

Playing Guitar

A dedicated Jimi Hendrix enthusiast since he first saw Hendrix perform in 1969, Allen played rhythm guitar in a Seattle band called Grown Men; the band released their first CD in the spring of 2000. In 2013, Allen released another album with his band the Underthinkers called Everywhere at Once through Sony.

Later Career

On May 29, 2013, it was announced that Vulcan Productions, Allen's award-winning media company, had signed on as a production partner of Pandora's Promise , the groundbreaking documentary by Academy Award-nominated director Robert Stone. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, and was scheduled to debut in the United States in November 2013.

According to a press release issued by Vulcan Productions in May 2013, Stone's film tells the "intensely personal stories of environmentalists and energy experts who have converted from being fiercely anti to strongly pro-nuclear energy, risking their careers and reputations in the process." Stone exposes this environmental controversy with stories of defection by Stewart Brand, Richard Rhodes, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas and Michael Shellenberger, among others.

" Pandora's Promise presents nuclear power as a hopeful solution to climate change, and is opening people’s minds about one of the most critical issues of our time," Allen stated. "This is exactly the type of thought-provoking project we are proud to partner on and support." Acclaimed films and series from Vulcan Productions include Girl Rising (2013); This Emotional Life (2010); Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (2007); Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge (2005); No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005); Strange Days on Planet Earth (2005); Black Sky: The Race For Space , and Black Sky: Winning the X Prize (2004); Lightning in a Bottle (2004); The Blues (2003); and Evolution (2001).

In 2014, Allen pledged $100 million to combat Ebola in West Africa. That same year, he founded the Allen Institute for Cell Science, which researches cells in order to understand their behavior in how to fight diseases. Allen has also taken interest in space time travel and launched Vulcan Aerospace in 2015.

Allen lived on Lake Washington's Mercer Island, near Seattle.

Paul Allen Yacht

Loaned for rescue missions and scientific explorations, Allen's yacht, the Octopus , is one of the largest in the world at over 400 feet long, equipped with two helicopter pads, a pool and two submarines.

Battle with Cancer and Death

In the fall of 2009, Allen received another blow to his health: he had developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and had to undergo more radiation treatments. Luckily, Allen beat this cancer diagnosis as well. However, in October 2018, Allen revealed that he started treatments for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He passed away on October 15, 2018, from complications of the disease.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth Year: 1953
• Birth date: January 21, 1953
• Birth State: Washington
• Birth City: Seattle
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Entrepreneur and investor Paul Allen was best known for being one of the co-founders of Microsoft with Bill Gates.
• Internet/Computing
• Washington State University
• Lakeside School
• Death Year: 2018
• Death date: October 15, 2018
• Death State: Washington
• Death City: Seattle

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Paul Allen Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/business-leaders/paul-allen
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: April 1, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

Watch Next .css-16toot1:after{background-color:#262626;color:#fff;margin-left:1.8rem;margin-top:1.25rem;width:1.5rem;height:0.063rem;content:'';display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;}

Philanthropists

Alec Baldwin

Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales

Tyler Childers

Prince William

Michelle Obama

Oprah Winfrey

Madam C.J. Walker

Prince Harry

Jimmy Carter

Rosalynn Carter

Dolly Parton

The largest yachts owned by tech billionaires, from Mark Zuckerberg to Jeff Bezos

• Megayachts have become a status symbol for the richest of the rich.
• In recent years, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have splurged on enormous boats.
• These are the biggest yachts owned by tech billionaires.

The average Joe celebrating a personal renaissance after, say, the end of a long-term relationship or when approaching a fresh decade might commemorate it with an ankle tattoo or a sports car. But if you're a billionaire, you may instead spend hundreds of millions on a yacht .

A few years after he and his wife divorced, Jeff Bezos shelled out on a megayacht. Last year, Bezos debuted the 127-meter vessel "Koru," a Māori symbol that signifies a fresh start — perhaps referring to that with his fiancée Lauren Sanchez.

Earlier this year, just before his 40th birthday, Mark Zuckerberg became the rumored owner of a yacht originally built for a Russian oligarch.

Superyachts have increasingly become ultrawealthy status symbols , providing highly secluded leisure and networking sites. They are — even more so than real estate — the single most expensive asset you can own.

"It's a bit of a celebration of your success in life, of wealth," Giovanna Vitelli, the chair of the Azimut Benetti Group, the world's biggest producer of superyachts, told Business Insider.

While many tech billionaires have bought yachts, the richest of the rich, like Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, have gone bigger. Their boats are virtual palaces at sea, decked with amenities like gyms, spas, pools, nightclubs, and movie theaters.

A look at these megayachts — broadly defined as over 70 meters long, mostly custom-built, and often costing nine figures — offers a glimpse into how the .00001% lives. It's something few others will ever get to experience. Even chartering a yacht of this size for a week typically costs upwards of $1 million.

One major thing that hundreds of millions of dollars can buy is privacy. There are likely yachts that have not been publicly recorded or registered — for example, Evan Spiegel is rumored to own the 94-meter megayacht Bliss. In an industry ruled by discretion , deciphering who owns what is typically an exercise in stringing together many clues.

Here are the largest yachts owned by tech billionaires, listed in order of length.

Jeff Bezos: Koru and Abeona

Amazon founder Bezos' $500 million megayacht, the 127-meter Koru, made a splash last year as she crisscrossed the Mediterranean in her first summer at sea, with her 75-meter support vessel Abeona in tow.

The sailing yacht, which is hard to miss thanks to her massive size and unique design, was host to Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez's famous friends . The couple held an engagement party on board, which reportedly drew guests including Bill Gates, Ari Emanuel, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Just a week later, they were seen on the streets of Dubrovnik, Croatia, with Orlando Bloom, Katy Perry, and Usher.

Even before her completion, Koru made headlines. She drew the ire of some Dutch people, who vowed to hurl eggs after she was announced a historic bridge in Rotterdam might be taken apart to allow the Oceanco boat through. Luckily, the shipyard made alternative plans, and an egg crisis was averted.

Among yacht world insiders , Koru is widely praised for her craftsmanship.

"I heard back in 2018 or something that somebody had ordered a classic sailing yacht," one superyacht expert told BI. "You order 125 meters, that's not really going to be classic. But it is. I think it's pretty cool."

Mark Zuckerberg: Launchpad

Earlier this year, the yacht world was rife with rumors that Zuckerberg purchased Launchpad, a 118-meter superyacht originally designed for a sanctioned Russian businessman.

The ship made her maiden voyage in March, going from Gibraltar to St. Maarten and mooring in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Little is known about her interior, but photos show a large swimming pool and helipad. Her price, too, has been kept under wraps but is said to be nine figures.

Eric Schmidt: Whisper

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt made waves last year when he agreed to buy the Alfa Nero , the yacht of a sanctioned Russian oligarch, for $67 million in an auction conducted by Antigua and Barbuda. But he backed out of the deal following legal issues over her true owner. He quietly purchased Kismet instead. The 95-meter-long Lürssen-built boat was formerly owned by the Jacksonville Jaguar's billionaire owner Shahid Khan . Schmidt renamed her Whisper.

The ship can fit 12 guests and a crew of 28, according to Moran Yacht & Ship, which oversaw her construction. She features a master deck with a private jacuzzi, full-service spa, lap pool, movie theater, and outdoor fireplace.

While her final sale price was not public, she was listed for 149 million euros (about $161 million at current exchange rates), and at a charity auction in January, one week aboard the ship went for $2.4 million, according to industry outlet Yacht Charter Fleet.

Barry Diller: Eos

Barry Diller , the chairman of digital media company IAC, co-owns the megayacht Eos with his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg , who is immortalized by a figurehead sculpture by Anh Duong.

One of the largest private sailing yachts in the world, the three-masted Lürssen schooner measures 93 meters long. She took three years to be built before being delivered to Diller in 2009, and since then, little has come to light about her interior and features.

The power couple has hosted many celebrities on the Eos, which spends her summers crisscrossing the Mediterranean and New Year ' s Eve in St. Barts . Over the years, guests have included Oprah Winfrey, Emma Thompson, Anderson Cooper, and Bezos, leading some to believe she provided inspiration for his Koru.

Jim Clark: Athena

Netscape founder Jim Clark purchased the 90-meter sailing yacht Athena in 2004.

"I could easily have built a 50- or 60-meter motor yacht that would have had the same space as Athena, but I was never really interested in building a motor yacht," he told Boat International in 2016. "To my eye, she's one of the most gorgeous large sailing yachts, maybe the most gorgeous large sailing yacht in the world."

Athena has room for 10 guests and 21 crewmembers, and the only change Clark says he'd make in her design is adding more space for his kids.

"If I was forced to change something, I would convert the office on the lower deck into a children's room," he said.

The former Stanford professor tried to sell her at various points — listing her for $95 million in 2012 , $69 million in 2016, and $59 million in 2017 — but she has yet to change hands.

Larry Ellison: Musashi

Oracle founder Larry Ellison has owned several superyachts over the years, including the Katana, the Ronin, and the Rising Sun — which he sold to fellow billionaire David Geffen .

He purchased his current boat, Musashi, in 2011 for a reported $160 million from custom-yacht giant Feadship.

Named after a famous samurai warrior, the 88-meter-long yacht has both Japanese and Art Deco-inspired design elements. She also boasts amenities including an elevator, swimming pool, beauty salon, gym, and basketball court.

Ellison is known for his extravagant spending — private islands, jets, a tennis tournament — and yachting is among his favorite and most expensive hobbies. He took up racing them in the 1990s and financed the America's Cup-winning BMW Oracle Racing team .

Laurene Powell Jobs: Venus

Steve Jobs' wife, investor and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, inherited a nearly finished 78-meter yacht named Venus when the Apple cofounder died in 2011.

After spending years vacationing on Ellison's yachts, Jobs wanted one for himself. He designed Venus with French starchitect and decorator Philippe Starck , and she was worth $130 million at completion.

"Venus comes from the philosophy of minimum," Starck said of her design. "The elegance of the minimum, approaching dematerialization."

Jobs and Starck began working together in 2007, the designer told Vanity Fair , and held monthly meetings over four years. Venus was delivered in 2012 to Jobs' specification: six identical cabins, a design to ensure spaces of absolute silence, and the most up-to-date technology.

"There will never again be a boat of that quality again. Because never again will two madmen come together to accomplish such a task," Starck told the magazine. "It was not a yacht that Steve and I were constructing, we were embarked on a philosophical action, implemented according to a quasi-religious process. We formed a single brain with four lobes."

Charles Simonyi: Norn

Early Microsoft employee Charles Simonyi has purchased two megayachts from the German shipyard Lürssen: the 90-meter Norn and 71-meter Skat.

Delivered in 2023, Norn is full of luxe features, including an outdoor cinema and a pool floor that lifts to become a light-up dancefloor. She shares a militaristic style with Skat , which Simonyi sold in 2021.

Skats's name is derived from the Danish word for treasure, and she had a listing price of 56.5 million euros and was launched in 2002.

"The yacht is to be home away from my home in Seattle, and its style should match the style of the house, adapted for the practicalities of the sea," Simonyi once said .

Sergey Brin: Dragonfly

Google cofounder Sergey Brin has built a flotilla of yachts, boats, and toys known as the "Fly Fleet."

Named after a once-secret Google product , the largest of Brin's armada is the sleek Dragonfly , which boasts a movie theater and a helipad. The 73-meter-long vessel was built by the Australian shipyard Silver Yachts and can fit up to 18 guests and 16 crew members, according to SuperYacht Times.

Also in his fleet is the superyacht Butterfly, a mere 38 meters long. Often moored in the Bay Area, her crewmembers spend their downtime kitesurfing and giving swimming lessons to local kids.

The rest of his marine lineup includes a smaller boat called Firefly, as well as Jet Skis, foilboards, dinghies, and kiteboards. She takes a team of 50 full-time employees to manage, steer, and maintain the entire operation.

Sindhu Sundar contributed to an earlier version of this story.

Correction: May 6, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated Giovanna Vitelli's title. She is the chair of the Azimut Benetti Group, not a vice president.

• Main content

Who is Mike Lynch? A look at the British tech tycoon killed when his yacht sank off Sicily

FILE - British tech magnate Mike Lynch walks into federal court in San Francisco, March 26, 2024, (AP Photo/Michael Liedtke, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Michael Liedtke]

Tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who died after his yacht sank off Sicily, had been trying to move past a Silicon Valley debacle that had tarnished his legacy as an icon of British ingenuity.

Lynch, 59, struck gold when he sold Autonomy, a software maker he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011 . But the deal quickly turned into an albatross for him after he was accused of cooking the books to make the sale and fired by HP’s then-CEO Meg Whitman.

His death, confirmed on Thursday by Italian officials after they recovered his body and five others from the sea, was a dramatic turn of events that came after he was cleared of criminal charges in the U.S. in June.

Before becoming entangled with HP, Lynch was widely hailed as a visionary who inspired descriptions casting him as the British version of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Lynch was science and technology adviser to two British prime ministers. He also founded Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm that was a founding investor of British cybersecurity company Darktrace, and Luminance, an artificial intelligence platform for the legal industry.

Italian firefighters scuba divers are docked at the harbor of Porticello, southern Italy, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, as rescue teams returned to the site of a storm-sunken superyacht to search for six people, including British tech magnate Mike Lynch, who are believed to be still trapped in the hull 50 meters (164-feet) underwater. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Salvatore Cavalli

Lynch was “an instrumental figurehead from the Cambridge (England) technology scene,” said friend Brent Hoberman, former CEO of travel website lastminute.com. Hoberman told the BBC that Lynch was “leading the path forward for U.K. entrepreneurs to commercialize their inventions at a global scale.”

A decade-long legal battle had resulted in Lynch’s extradition from the U.K. to face criminal charges of engineering a massive fraud against HP, a company that helped shape Silicon Valley’s zeitgeist after starting in a Palo Alto, California, garage in 1939.

Lynch steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, asserting that he was being made a scapegoat for HP’s own bungling — a position he maintained while testifying before a jury during a 2 1/2 month trial in San Francisco earlier this year. U.S. Justice Department prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses in an attempt to prove allegations that Lynch engaged in accounting duplicity that bilked billions of dollars from HP.

The trial ended up vindicating Lynch and he pledged to return to the U.K. and explore new ways to innovate.

Although he avoided a possible prison sentence, Lynch still faced a civil case in London that HP mostly won during 2022. Damages haven’t been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $4 billion. Lynch made more than $800 million from the Autonomy sale.

Forbes pegged his wealth $1 billion in 2015, the only year he was on the magazine’s rich list. Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper estimated this year that Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares were worth 500 million pounds ($655 million).

Lynch, a Cambridge-educated mathematician, made his mark running Autonomy, which made a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly. Autonomy’s steady growth during its first decade resulted in Lynch being awarded one of the U.K’s highest honors, the Office of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2006.

John Browne, chair of Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research institute, and former head of energy giant BP, said Lynch’s “ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally.”

The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Lynch was a Fellow, said it was “deeply saddened” to learn of his death and that he played an “active role” as a mentor and donor.

In the months leading up to the deal that would go awry, HP valued Autonomy at $46 billion, according to evidence presented at Lynch’s trial.

The trial also presented contrasting portraits of Lynch. Prosecutors painted him as an iron-fisted boss obsessed with hitting revenue targets, even if it meant resorting to duplicity. But his lawyers cast him as entrepreneur with integrity and a prototypical tech nerd who enjoyed eating cold pizza late at night while pondering new ways to innovate.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.