It looks like the Meta CEO may dethrone Jeff Bezos as king of this year's superyacht season.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images; Ruben Griffioen/SuperYacht Times
Move over, Jeff Bezos. Mark Zuckerberg is looking like this summer's Poseiden.
While the Amazon founder made waves last year with the debut of his megayacht Koru, Zuckerberg is the name on the yacht world's lips this season.
Rumors began surfacing in March that the Meta CEO had purchased Launchpad — a Dutch-built, 118-meter motor yacht originally built for a Russian oligarch.
By May, the transaction seemed all but confirmed when both the yacht and Zuckerberg made their way to Panama to celebrate his 40th birthday with a fete that included a few spins on his infamous hydrofoil.
Now that summer is here, Zuckerberg has debuted Launchpad — and her support superyacht Wingman — on the biggest stage in the yachting world: the Mediterranean.
Zuckerberg this month treated his family to a trip aboard Launchpad off the coast of Mallorca. The family, sporting matching t-shirts, celebrated Father's Day and Zuckerberg's dad's 70th birthday, he wrote in a caption posted to Instagram. Local news outlets spotted Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan, and their three daughters on the Spanish island and aboard the yacht, which was outfitted with water slides and other toys.
From there, the yacht sailed to the Ligurian Sea, the spit of the Mediterranean between the Italian Riviera and Corsica.
It's likely the yacht will continue to crisscross the Mediterranean this summer. If Zuckerberg continues to post photos of his travels, we may glean more details about how he has customized the ship to his liking.
For now little is known beyond the fact that she is built by Feadship, the shipyard behind Larry Ellison's Musashi. Photos from SuperYacht Times show Launchpad features a large swimming pool and helipad. The final purchase price is not public, but a new yacht of that size would likely cost nine figures upfront and millions of dollars a year to maintain.
Perhaps, like Bezos did last year, Zuckerberg will entertain some of the most famous names in entertainment or business. (Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, had an engagement party last year aboard Koru that counted Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio as guests. On Friday, Bezos and Sanchez were spotted riding wave runners in the Aegean Sea alongside Kim Kardashian near the 127-meter yacht). Alternatively, Zuckerberg might prefer the privacy that is paramount to many in the superyacht world.
Whether Zuckerberg shows up as a bon vivant or doting family man this summer, Launchpad fits well into one of the most successful CEO rebrands in recent years, in which Zuckerberg went from being perceived as a robotic, mistrusted tech nerd to a kind-of-relatable, fun, fit tech bro.
Now he's got one of the largest yachts in the world to add to his cool factor (even though, regrettably for Zuckerberg, it is a mortifying nine meters shorter than Koru).
