If you look closely at the timeline below, we’ve witnessed an industrial evolution over the past 50 years – starting with the birth of Microsoft 1975 – that has made a significant impact on the superyacht industry. The three dominant computing brands from the mid-70s have given rise to a series of significant yachts built and owned by well-known billionaires such as Larry Ellison, the late Paul Allen, the late Steve Jobs and Charles Simonyi.

The 1990s saw an emergence of the powerhouse brands of Amazon, Google and PayPal, all of which have seen the likes of Schmidt, Page, Brin, Thiel and most recently Bezos invest in the yachting world with several iconic projects.

More recently in the 2000s, we’ve seen the social-media world transform our lives and transform our industry in equal measures, with Zuckerberg, Spiegel, Koum and Parker all finding their sea legs with some significant investments in the premium superyacht shipyards. And finally, 50 years after starting Microsoft, there has been a ‘breakthrough’ with the latest tech billionaire build at Feadship with Project 821, allegedly (and there’s no reason to think otherwise) commissioned, designed and built by Bill and Melinda Gates before their much-publicised separation.

The objective of this brief report is to highlight the trends and segmentation of billionaires around the world and perhaps how they are influenced by their peer group. There are groups of private equity and venture capital owners, bankers, real-estate investors, movie moguls, self-made manufacturers in sectors such as gloves, fast fashion, wire coat hangers and aromatic candles, various royals and obviously, in this case, the tech billionaires. So perhaps when someone starts buying yachts in a particular sector or geography, it’s interesting to analyse how their network reacts or explores our market.

The overarching trend of the tech oligarchs is their vision, passion and drive to do something
completely different and make an intelligent statement.

Therefore, if we refer to the timeline again and the arrival on the scene of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, with his investment into the Vulcan Fleet, you can see over time that others joined him in his ocean pursuits. The likes of Larry Ellison of Oracle and Charles Simonyi – another tech genius from Microsoft – became part of the tech revolution in superyachts, with some very bespoke projects, namely SKAT/Norn and Musashi and others in the sailing space, where Ellison likes to play a big role.

Other tech sailors included the renowned Tom Perkins, Bill Joy and Jim Clark, all geniuses in their fields, as well as major investors and venture capitalists in the Silicon Valley era, who also became major investors in our niche market, with dynamic, cool, innovative, challenging and smart superyachts, including Maltese Falcon, Ethereal and Athena.

The next generation of tech billionaires has now joined the market from the likes of Amazon, META, Alphabet and other global brands that now influence all our daily lives. They’ve jumped into the market and spent big on superyachts, with some amazing legacy projects built at the premium yards of Oceanco, Lürssen and, of course, Feadship, which seems to have enjoyed some significant heydays in the Pacific Northwest.

What’s perhaps important and very interesting for the future of our market is the fact that many of these tech buyers are just starting out with gargantuan projects. Koru, Launchpad, Moonrise and the new Dragonfly, all in the 100-metre-plus category, suggest that this is the new superyacht oligarchy, especially after their appearances on stage alongside the Donald.

Timeline of superyacht ownership by Silicon Valley billionaires

Their age range is also very positive for the market, with ages below 50 quite common, even some in their 30s. Therefore, providing we deliver on their expectations and they keep enjoying their new floating islands, these yachts will be seen as an investment for their future private lifestyle and not just a toy. We can see already that someone like Jan Koum of WhatsApp fame seems to have been bitten by the superyacht bug, with a mini-fleet, if you can call it that.

Obviously, we’ve sadly lost the likes of the visionary Paul Allen and the amazing Tom Perkins who once helped me miss a flight in Porto Cervo when he just kept sailing and didn’t return to the dock because he was having so much fun. Then there’s the incredible Steve Jobs who designed and built perhaps my favourite superyacht from Feadship, M/Y Venus, designed in partnership with one of my favourite designers, Philippe Starck. It seems to me that the overarching trend of the tech oligarchs is their vision, their passion and their drive to do something completely different and make an intelligent statement.

In essence, Maltese Falcon will always be Tom Perkins’ yacht, as Octopus will be Paul Allen’s and Venus will be Steve Jobs’. These are powerful legacy projects that have not only shaped the market, but also entertained, hosted and show-cased our niche to their networks of powerful friends. I’m sure if you created a superyacht family tree you could identify those current and future owners who have been a guest on board only to find themselves asking ‘How do I get one of these?’.

In conclusion, it’s clear and obvious that Bill and Melinda Gates would have no doubt stepped on board any one of a myriad of superyachts owned by this digital billionaire crowd. So, 50 years after the founding of Microsoft and having enjoyed the hospitality of their floating friends and cruising colleagues, it seems that a few years ago they decided to take a leap of faith and make their own ‘breakthrough’ into superyacht ownership.

This article first appeared in The Superyacht Report – New Build Focus. With our open-source policy, it is available to all by following this link, so read and download the latest issue and any of our previous issues in our library.

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