For the first time ever, Forbes dug into how many superyachts are owned by America’s 400 richest people and how much they’re truly worth. Turns out it’s a bigger share of all superyachts around the world, even though they are not necessarily the most valuable.
By Giacomo Tognini and Stephen Pastis, Forbes Staff
Sometimes, the trappings of a multi-billion dollar fortune get old. Forbes 400 member Shahid Khan of auto parts supplier firm Flex-N-Gate decided in 2020 that his superyacht, Kismet, needed an update. So he splurged nearly $390 million on building a new 400-foot superyacht—also named Kismet, which was delivered in April. The new floating pad features fireplaces, floor-to-ceiling glass windows and a bow shaped like a jaguar (presumably a nod to Khan’s Jacksonville NFL team) plus all the usual yacht trimmings, from a helipad to a mosaic-lined swimming pool.
But first, he had to make room. Last September, he sold his previous yacht—also named Kismet—for $159 million to Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO. Schmidt had been in the market for a new boat after his planned $67 million purchase of the 269-foot Alfa Nero fell through, reportedly due to concerns that the yacht’s alleged owner, a sanctioned Russian oligarch, would sue to regain control. (The yacht, which had been frozen by U.S. authorities in 2022 and was sitting idle in the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, eventually sold in July for $40 million to an unnamed buyer.)
Khan and Schmidt aren’t the only American billionaires with a passion for yachts. While the largest—and most valuable—yachts in the world are owned by Middle Eastern royals and Russian oligarchs (in fact, all 17 of the longest yachts are owned by individuals from these two groups), Americans own the most, with roughly one out of four of all superyachts—commonly defined as those larger than 40 meters (131 feet)—belonging to an American. That’s three times as many as Russians, the second-largest yacht owners, according to industry publication SuperYacht Times.
For the first time ever, Forbes has compiled a list of all of the yachts owned by America’s 400 richest people. Collectively, Forbes estimates that 40 members of the Forbes 400 own at least 60 yachts worth more than $6 billion, according to yacht valuation experts VesselsValue. Some own multiple, while others focus on one extravagant build, which can cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
These ships range from the modest—Igor Olenicoff’s 118-foot, $2 million Rusalka—to the grandiose, such as David Geffen’s Rising Sun. The 18th largest yacht in the world at 453 feet and the biggest one owned by an American, it comes with a basketball court that converts to a helipad and has hosted celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and fellow billionaire Oprah Winfrey. The most valuable American-owned yacht is Jeff Bezos’ Koru, a custom-built 417-foot sailing yacht that’s worth an estimated $500 million.
While Geffen owns the biggest and Bezos the most valuable, it’s Gabe Newell—the cofounder of video game company Valve—who owns the most. His six ships (plus several submarines), which he manages through his maritime research organization Inkfish, make up the largest fleet among America’s richest people.
Newell is not the only American whose love of floating mansions seems to stem at least in part from a passion to better understand the ocean. Ex-Google CEO Schmidt bought the Falkor Too, a $75 million research vessel owned through the nonprofit Schmidt Ocean Institute, in 2021. Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, owns the $82 million OceanXplorer, a souped-up research vessel that has its own TV show on National Geographic.
Sometimes owning a superyacht can be a liability, or worse—deadly—as the August tragedy involving onetime billionaire Michael Lynch’s yacht Bayesian illustrates. Lynch and six others perished when the yacht sank off the coast of Italy. That same month, Laurene Powell Jobs’ 256-foot, $81 million yacht Venus collided with Lady Moura, a yacht owned by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego. Fortunately, no one was hurt. In early 2020, hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb‘s 197-foot, $45 million yacht Samadhi damaged a coral reef in Belize, spurring an apology from Loeb, who committed to working with a local conservation group to restore the reef.
Here are the yachts owned by America’s 400 richest people:
Koru
Owner: Jeff Bezos
Size: 417 feet
Estimated value: $500 million
Jeff Bezos’ Koru yacht.
picture alliance/getty images
The custom-built sailing yacht is the second-largest of its kind in the world (behind Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko’s SY A) Based on the word Koru in the Māori language of New Zealand, which means the spiral shape of an unfurling silver fern frond, it is a symbol of harmony and eternal movement. The yacht briefly stirred controversy when its Dutch builder, Oceanco, proposed partially dismantling a historic bridge in Rotterdam to allow it to sail through. (After local protests, the yacht was instead towed elsewhere.) It comes with its own “support vessel” named Abeona, worth $53 million, and the bow features a sculpture of a woman who many believe is modeled after Bezos’ girlfriend, Lauren Sánchez—a claim she has denied, stating it depicts the Norse goddess Freyja.
Kismet
Owner: Shahid Khan
Size: 400 feet
Estimated value: $390 million
Shahid Khan’s Kismet yacht.
Fabrizio Villa/getty images
The third yacht named Kismet (which means fate or destiny) built for Khan, this newest version was codenamed Project Jag before it was delivered in 2024. (Previous iterations of Kismet hosted musical guests including Charli XCX and Oasis’ Noel Gallagher.) The yacht is built for comfort, featuring a “7-star wellness suite” that comes with a hammam, sauna and cryotherapy chamber, plus a private treatment room with a massage table and a chromotherapy bathtub, according to the builder, Lurssen. The aquatic theme continues in the lower deck, which boasts a “Nemo cinema” with a 150-inch TV and an underwater seating area.
Launchpad
Owner: Mark Zuckerberg
Size: 400 feet
Estimated value: $390 million
While Zuckerberg is relatively new to the yachting world, he started big. Feadship, one of the world’s most popular superyacht builders, called Launchpad the largest yacht it had ever built when it was delivered in early 2024. (Originally named Katusha, the yacht was apparently intended to be built for Russian metals tycoon Vladimir Potanin.) With a dark navy hull and curving shapes, it has all the typical luxuries of a superyacht: two helipads, a swimming pool with a movable floor and a private outdoor deck with a jacuzzi.
Project Y722 (Not yet delivered)
Owner: Gabe Newell
Size: 364 feet
Estimated value: $335 million
The yet-to-be-delivered Project Y722 is the crown jewel in Gabe Newell’s fleet of ships, a custom craft built by Netherlands-based Oceanco. The “future-proofed” megayacht comes with its own diesel-electric power plant and a battery energy storage system, allowing for “extended periods of emission-free silent running” according to the company. It is expected to be delivered in 2025.
Norn
Owner: Charles Simonyi
Size: 295 feet
Estimated value: $250 million
Norn, a Lurssen-built yacht, resembles a U.S. Navy destroyer more than the typical superyacht, with sharp, angular corners and a military-style bow. Still, the builders didn’t skimp on luxury for its owner Charles Simonyi, an early Microsoft employee who later sold a startup to his old firm: Norn has an outdoor cinema and a swimming pool with a liftable floor that turns into a dancefloor.
Moonrise
Owner: Jan Koum
Size: 324 feet
Estimated value: $237 million
One of four ships in WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum’s fleet, Moonrise is a striking yacht with all-teak decks—including the helipad—drawing a sharp contrast with its white steel hull and aluminum structure. Its support vessel, Nebula, is the largest ever produced by its builder, Astilleros Armón, and features an air-conditioned helicopter hangar. When Koum gets bored, he can always step onto his $68 million, 241-foot yacht Mogambo with its own support boat, Power Play.
Kaos
Owner: Nancy Walton Laurie
Size: 361 feet
Estimated value: $236 million
Kaos was famously defaced with graffiti by activists (twice) in Ibiza and Barcelona. Still, that hasn’t stopped its owner, Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, from enjoying it. One of the largest superyachts built in the Netherlands at the time of its delivery in 2017, Kaos can fit 30 guests and features “visual tricks” in the shape of unusable deck areas and overhangs, which give a better sense of proportion, according to its builder, Oceanco. It was delivered to Laurie already outfitted with her own fine china, silverware, and even loose furniture.
Bravo Eugenia
Owner: Jerry Jones
Size: 357 feet
Estimated value: $223 million
Jerry Jones’ Bravo Eugenia yacht.
Thomas Niedermueller/getty images
The Dallas Cowboys owner’s yacht, named in tribute of his wife, was considered a “pioneer” by its builder, Oceanco, for its sustainability and fuel efficient attributes when it was delivered in 2018. With “waste heat recovery” and “integrated battery systems,” the yacht floats ahead of its gas-guzzling sisters with (slightly) cleaner operations, consuming 30% less fuel than a standard vessel of its size, according to Oceanco’s website. Part of that design is to help Jones accomplish a goal he told Yachts International in 2019: “to see as much of the world as possible from the perspective of the sea.” More than 14 guests can coast efficiently in style, enjoying its sundry amenities like a sauna and movie theater. The yacht has gotten its moment in the spotlight, too, when in 2020, Jones called into the NFL draft from an ornate room on the yacht, as ESPN reporter Don Van Natta posted online.
The 400
Rising Sun
Owner: David Geffen
Size: 454 feet
Estimated value: $214 million
David Geffen’s Rising Sun yacht.
Portland Press Herald/getty images
Built in 2004, Rising Sun is much older than the rest of the yachts owned by America’s richest, one reason its value has depreciated so much since Geffen bought it for a reported $590 million from fellow Forbes 400 member Larry Ellison in 2010. Still, it was refitted in 2011 and has more than enough features and amenities—including a spa, beauty salon and specially built glass panels with heat-insulating foil—to make Geffen and his celebrity guests comfortable. In March 2020, Geffen famously posted photos of a sunrise over the yacht on Instagram, telling his followers that he was isolating aboard Rising Sun while sailing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. (He later deleted the posts after being criticized for being tone-deaf.)
Viva
Owner: Frank Fertitta, III.
Size: 308 feet
Estimated value: $190 million
With Viva, Frank Fertitta, who made the bulk of his fortune through mixed martial arts promoter UFC, sought a yacht that was as efficient as possible. The pearl-white ship, delivered in 2021, boasts an “advanced hybrid propulsion system,” or diesel-electric power system, that’s more efficient than the standard yacht. Another Feadship creation, the vessel has a slim, sophisticated look that’s only made clearer by its all-white coloring, with pops of teak on its fold-out beach club deck, poolside and decks.
All The Rest
Lady S
Owner: Dan Snyder
Owner: 305 feet
Estimated value: $186 million
DreAMBoat
Owner: Arthur Blank
Size: 295 feet
Estimated value: $170 million
Lonian
Owner: Lorenzo Fertitta
Size: 285 feet
Estimated value: $162 million
Attessa V
Owner: Dennis Washington
Size: 312 feet
Estimated value: $160 million
Whisper
Owner: Eric Schmidt
Size: 312 feet
Estimated value: $159 million
Boardwalk
Owner: Tilman Fertitta
Size: 249 feet
Estimated value: $150 million
Tilman Fertitta aboard his yacht Boardwalk.
Jamel Toppin for Forbes
Tranquility
Owner: Gabe Newell
Owner: 300 feet
Owner: $135 million
Gabe Newell’s Tranquility yacht.
NurPhoto/getty images
Infinity
Owner: Eric Smidt
Size: 384 feet
Estimated value: $134 million
Podium
Owner: Roger Penske
Size: 236 feet
Estimated value: $117 million
Musashi
Owner: Larry Ellison
Size: 285 feet
Estimated value: $108 million
Attessa IV
Owner: Dennis Washington
Size: 332 feet
Estimated value: $105 million
Archimedes
Owner: Marilyn Simons
Size: 220 feet
Estimated value: $100 million
Sixth Sense
Owner: Micky Arison
Size: 242 feet
Estimated value: $95 million
OceanXplorer
Owner: Ray Dalio
Size: 286 feet
Estimated value: $82 million
Ray Dalio’s OceanXplorer yacht.
Tatan Syuflana/ap
Venus
Owner: Laurene Powell Jobs
Size: 256 feet
Estimated value: $81 million
Rocinante
Owner: Gabe Newell
Size: 257 feet
Estimated value: $80 million
Odessa II
Owner: Len Blavatnik
Size: 240 feet
Estimated value: $79 million
Invictus
Owner: Rick Caruso
Size: 216 feet
Estimated value: $70 million
Mogambo
Owner: Jan Koum
Size: 241 feet
Estimated value: $68 million
Aquila
Owner: Ann Walton Kroenke
Size: 281 feet
Estimated value: $67 million
Eminence
Owner: Haim Saban
Size: 257 feet
Estimated value: $65 million
Kathryn
Owner: Orlando Bravo
Size: 189 feet
Estimated value: $65 million
Top Five II
Owner: Terrence Pegula
Size: 201 feet
Estimated value: $63 million
Abeona (support vessel)
Owner: Jeff Bezos
Size: 247 feet
Estimated value: $53 million
Jeff Bezos’ Abeona support yacht.
Robino Salvatore/getty images
