How do tech billionaires like Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page splash out on their luxury superyachts?

Mar 12 , 2020

The superyachts of the super-rich are homes away from home. Photo: Benetti

Luxury superyachts of super-rich tech executives are decked out with amenities like helipads, gyms, spas, pools, nightclubs, and cinemas

Some billionaires, like Elon Musk and Bill Gates, buy private planes to take control of the open skies – others purchase yachts to access the open seas.

There aren't too many tech billionaires who own personal yachts. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, for instance, doesn't have a yacht himself, but that doesn't stop him from cruising the ocean. He was pictured recently aboard the superyacht belonging to entertainment mogul David Geffen.

But the tech billionaires who do have yachts, like Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, reflect the view that yachts are for play. Their boats are decked out 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.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison owns a 288-foot yacht named Musashi that he acquired in 2013.

Larry Ellison’s previous superyacht had 82 rooms and a basketball court. Photo: AFP

Ellison 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.

Ellison previously owned a bigger, 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 off the Rising Sun to music mogul David Geffen for a reported US$300 million.

Ellison's boat, Musashi, is a sister ship to the yacht of another billionaire, 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 celebrity gossip website Page Six in 2016. “It's so crazy … I don't even own a boat.”