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Rotterdam May Dismantle Part of Bridge for Jeff Bezos’ Superyacht

The Dutch city of Rotterdam walked back earlier comments that the historic Koningshaven Bridge would be briefly dismantled. On Thursday, officials said a decision had not yet been made.

By Jenny Gross

The Dutch city of Rotterdam on Thursday walked back plans to dismantle part of the historic Koningshaven Bridge so that a superyacht built for Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, could pass through the city’s river, saying that a decision had not yet been made.

This week, city officials had told the news media that Rotterdam had agreed to briefly dismantle the middle section of the 95-year-old bridge for the yacht’s passage this summer.

But on Thursday evening, officials said in another statement that the city had not yet approved the plan, though it had received a request from the shipbuilder to temporarily lift the middle part of bridge.

The city’s statement said the full cost of the dismantling, if approved, would be covered by the shipbuilder. The bridge, known locally as “De Hef,” would be restored immediately afterward.

A city spokeswoman had said that she did not have an estimate of how much the deconstruction would cost. The city statement said that officials would assess the environmental and economic effects of the plans.

A representative for Amazon did not respond to requests for comment about the cost or the yacht’s destination. A spokeswoman for Oceanco, the Dutch custom yacht company that is building the boat, said in an email that she could not comment on projects under construction or clients because of confidentiality reasons.

The city of Rotterdam’s decision to remove part of the bridge was reported on Wednesday by a regional Dutch public broadcaster, Rijnmond . Boat International, which publishes articles about the superyacht industry, reported that the 417-foot sailboat is set to become the largest sailing yacht in the world when it is finished later this year, surpassing the Sea Cloud , a 360-foot sailboat built in 1931 and owned by the Yacht Portfolio, an investment company based in Malta.

The superyacht Mr. Bezos commissioned is likely to cost more than $500 million to build, Bloomberg reported . Mr. Bezos is the world’s second-richest person , after Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk.

The bridge, which has a boat clearance of 130 feet, is not currently in use. A Rotterdam tour guide, Eddy le Couvreur, said that the bridge, designed by the Dutch architect Pieter Joosting and a fixture in the Rotterdam skyline, was once used for railway traffic. A vertical lift bridge, it was the first of its kind in the Netherlands, and was copied from similar bridges in the United States. The modern industrial aesthetics of the bridge inspired a short film in 1928, he said.

Until now, tall ships passed under the bridge before assembling their masts and taller structures, he said.

Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor for Rotterdam, said he was fine with the bridge being dismantled — since the city would not be paying for it — because of the jobs the process would create. “As a city, this is a great way to take some of his money,” Mr. Tak said.

The structure is more than a bridge to the people of Rotterdam, said Siebe Thissen, the author of the book “The Boy Who Jumped From the Bridge,” about a working-class man who jumped from the bridge in 1933. “It’s a monument,” he said. “It’s the identity of Rotterdam.”

When city officials tried to take the bridge down in the 1990s since it was no longer in use, there were major protests, he said, calling the bridge a reminder of “the old days” in Rotterdam.

“I think that’s why there is so much turmoil about Jeff Bezos and his boat,” he said, before referring to accusations against Amazon . “People say, ‘Why this guy?’ It’s a working-class town, and they all know that Jeff Bezos, of course, he exploits his workers, so people say, ‘Why should this guy be able to demolish the bridge for his boat?’”

As of Thursday, more than 600 Facebook users said they would attend an event, titled “Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos,” where they plan to gather by the bridge to throw eggs at the boat. “Rotterdammers are proud of their city and don’t tear down iconic buildings just because you are super rich,” said Pablo Strörmann, the event organizer, who said he started the Facebook group “mostly” as a joke.

Mr. le Couvreur, who works for the company Tours by Locals, which connects tourists with local guides, said that Rotterdammers would likely enjoy the international attention that the spectacle had brought, he said. “On the other hand, it shows the unimaginable wealth that people like Bezos have created for themselves, that nothing can stand in the way for them living out their dreams and hobbies,” he said, adding that the outlook was “worlds apart from those who will be watching the ship pass through the city.”

Claire Moses contributed reporting.

Jenny Gross is a general assignment reporter. Before joining The Times, she covered British politics for the The Wall Street Journal. More about Jenny Gross

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The Dutch vow to egg Jeff Bezos' yacht if a bridge is dismantled to let his boat pass

Rachel Treisman

Rotterdam residents appear to be up in arms over a plan to temporarily dismantle the Koningshaven lift bridge, popularly called "De Hef." Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Rotterdam residents appear to be up in arms over a plan to temporarily dismantle the Koningshaven lift bridge, popularly called "De Hef."

It's not exactly smooth sailing these days in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, where locals are voicing their objection to a plan that would temporarily dismantle a historic bridge to enable the passage of a record-breaking yacht reportedly owned by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

In fact, some are already making plans — albeit in jest — for what they will do if the project comes to fruition: throw eggs at the yacht as it traverses the water under the Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as "De Hef."

Some 13,000 people are "interested" and nearly 4,000 have said they will attend a Facebook event titled "Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos," which has been shared more than 1,000 times in the week since its creation.

Tens Of Thousands Sign Petition To Stop Jeff Bezos From Returning To Earth

"Calling all Rotterdammers, take a box of rotten eggs with you and let's throw them en masse at Jeff's superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam," wrote organizer Pablo Strörmann.

He told the NL Times that the protest started as a joke among friends and has quickly gotten "way out of hand." (The English-language news site also notes that this isn't Strörmann's first campaign to go viral.)

The news of De Hef's potential disassembly, however brief, has clearly struck a chord with both locals and international observers.

It all started last week when Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond reported that the city appeared willing to grant a request to dismantle the decades-old steel bridge so that Bezos' yacht could pass through.

De Hef was built in 1927 as a railway bridge, with a midsection that can be lifted to allow ship traffic to pass underneath, according to The Washington Post . It was replaced by a tunnel and decommissioned in 1994, but was saved from demolition by public protests and later declared a national monument.

The ship's three masts are apparently too high for the bridge's roughly 130-foot clearance.

After backlash, Jeff Bezos suggests naming library auditorium for Toni Morrison

The sailing yacht in question was reportedly commissioned by the billionaire Amazon founder and is currently being built at the Oceanco shipyard in the Netherlands, according to Boat International . It will consist of three masts with aluminum and steel construction and will measure more than 415 feet in length.

"Once delivered, not only will she become the world's largest sailing yacht but she will also hold the title for the largest superyacht ever built in the Netherlands," it added.

The waterway where the bridge sits is the only way the ship can get from the shipyard in Alblasserdam to the open seas, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . So Oceanco asked Rotterdam officials to temporarily remove the middle section of the bridge.

City spokesperson Netty Kros told the CBC that "the applicant" would cover the costs of the project but did not clarify whether that refers to the yacht's owner, the shipbuilder or both. Bloomberg reports that Oceanco will foot the bill. NPR has reached out to Amazon and Oceanco to confirm these details.

The city appeared to agree to the arrangement last week, with municipal project leader Marcel Walravens telling Rijnmond that the project would proceed for logistical and economic reasons. He said an exact plan was being developed but estimated it would take about a week to prepare and another week to "put everything back in place."

Liftoff! Jeff Bezos And 3 Crewmates Travel To Space And Back In Under 15 Minutes

"At the Koningenne Bridge, we can press a button, and it opens. That's not possible here because De Hef has a maximum height," Walravens said, according to a translation from the NL Times . "The only alternative is to take out the middle part."

That prompted an immediate backlash from locals, lawmakers and social media users, with the Rotterdam Historical Society pointing out that city officials had promised never to dismantle the bridge again after completing a major restoration in 2017.

Officials then walked back the reports, with Rotterdam's mayor telling a Dutch newspaper on Thursday that "no decision has yet been taken, not even an application for a permit," according to The Guardian .

He said the municipality would consider an application and assess the potential impacts, like whether the dismantling can be done without damaging the bridge and who would cover the costs.

Postcard from Rotterdam

Proponents of the plan say the project will bring more economic opportunities to the region, while critics say there's a double standard at play.

"Normally it's the other way around: If your ship doesn't fit under a bridge, you make it smaller," Strörmann told the NL Times. "But when you happen to be the richest person on Earth, you just ask a municipality to dismantle a monument. That's ridiculous."

With a net worth of more than $188 billion, Bezos is the third-richest person in the world behind Tesla founder Elon Musk and French businessman Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes' real-time list .

Hypothetically, if the project does come to pass, and locals do show up with eggs, just how hard of a moving target would the yacht be? The website Curbed set out to find out.

After examining several studies and making a few calculations, reporter Clio Chang says an egg would have to travel about 238 feet to hit the hull — "a difficult, but not impossible, feat."

This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog .

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Historic Bridge To Be Dismantled So Jeff Bezos' Yacht Can Get Through

National Reporter, HuffPost

A historic steel bridge in the Netherlands will be partially dismantled this summer so Jeff Bezos ’ yacht can pass through, authorities in Rotterdam confirmed Thursday.

Koningshaven Bridge, a 95-year-old Dutch national monument, is too short for the 130-foot tall, 417-foot long superyacht known as “Y721,” which is being built upstream by Oceanco, a custom yacht builder.

A spokesman for the Rotterdam mayor told the BBC that the bridge would have to be taken apart and rebuilt so the boat could pass through, noting “it’s the only route to the sea.”

Bezos will pay for the bridge’s deconstruction and reassembly. Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor for Rotterdam, told The New York Times he supported the move because it would create jobs locally.

Rotterdam citizens, however, seem less than happy about the development. A Facebook event inviting people to hurl rotten eggs at the ship as it sails through this summer boasts 2,600 interested attendees, with 660 confirmed.

According to Boat International, Y721 will be the world’s largest sailing yacht when it’s delivered later this year. A Bloomberg report linking the vessel to Bezos found the yacht, which comes with its own secondary yacht, likely cost more than $500 million to build.

From March 2020 to November 2021, the 10 richest people in the world more than doubled their wealth, from a collective $700 billion to $1.5 trillion, an Oxfam report found .

Bezos — who is worth more than $150 billion — didn’t pay a penny in federal income tax in 2007, 2011 or 2018, a ProPublica report last year found. He paid a true tax rate of less than 1% between 2014 and 2018.

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Jeff Bezos gets a historic Dutch bridge dismantled so his $500 million yacht can pass

The rich are different from you and me, as the writer Scott Fitzgerald once said. More proof (if any is needed) is a deal struck between Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos and officials in the Dutch city of Rotterdam to dismantle a historical landmark, so he can move his brand-new superyacht from the shipyard to the open sea.

In negotiations revealed this week, Rotterdam officials agreed to take apart (and later reassemble) the steel Koningshaven bridge that spans Europe’s busiest cargo port, and which has stood in place since 1927. That is in order for Bezos’s new 412-foot vessel—one of the biggest private yachts on the planet —to leave its construction site and set sail. The bridge is one of Rotterdam’s best-known local landmarks, called a “must-see” by one tourist on Tripadvisor.

It is a “must-remove” for Bezos, however. His vessel—estimated to cost about $500 million to build— includes three 229-foot masts , too tall to sail under the bridge, which has the height of a 13-story building and a clearance of 131 feet.

That meant the bridge, which locals affectionately call “De Hef,” or “the lever,” has to be temporarily taken apart sometime this summer and then reconstructed once Bezos’s yacht leaves town.

“On the one hand, economic importance, employment, due to the construction of this ship. On the other hand, our concern for De Hef,” Rotterdam spokeswoman Frances van Heijst told the Washington Post (which is owned by Bezos), to explain the thinking behind the decision. “We attach great importance to preserving employment,” she said, adding that the city would not cover the costs of removing and reassembling the bridge.

That was hardly reassuring to some politicians.

“This man has earned his money by structurally cutting staff, evading taxes, avoiding regulations, and now we have to tear down our beautiful national monument?” Stephan Leewis, a member of the Rotterdam council from the environmental party GroenLinks , told the local broadcaster Rijnmond, which broke the news on Wednesday. “That is really a bridge too far,” he said.

The deal also sparked anger among preservationists. “Jobs are important,” Ton Wesselink of Rotterdam’s historical society Historisch Genootschap Roterodamum told Rijnmond . “But there are limits with what you can and should do with our industrial heritage.”

Yet there are few limits, it seems, to what can be negotiated by a tech titan like Bezos, whose wealth grew by $5 billion last year to $195 billion, making him the world’s second richest individual after Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Last September, Bezos committed $1 billion to climate projects—including those focused on restoring the oceans.

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Will Rotterdam Make Way for Jeff Bezos, Lord of the Seas?

Jeff Bezos has it all. Billions of dollars, spaceships at his disposal, and soon, a $500 million super-schooner. The megayacht has been in the making for years , and is being built in the Netherlands. Upon completion, Y721 will be the largest sailing yacht in the world, with three masts, a black hull, and an accompanying “shadow vessel” with a helipad and room for Bezos’s other water toys. Yet misfortune has still befallen him. The yacht is large. Too large, by at least one critical metric: It cannot fit under the historic Koningshaven bridge in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, which it will need to get past to reach the ocean.

So city officials reportedly came up with a plan: They would temporarily dismantle part of the bridge so the Bezos yacht may pass underneath it. Bezos and Oceanco, the company building his superyacht upriver, would foot the bill rather than the city itself, and the bridge would be rebuilt after its ordeal. But officials have now backtracked, saying the plan has not yet been approved.

This is perhaps because the local population was not thrilled to hear that the bridge — known as “De Hef,” and a beloved local landmark even though it is no longer a working bridge — would be taken apart. “I think that’s why there is so much turmoil about Jeff Bezos and his boat,” the Dutch author Siebe Thissen told the New York Times. “People say, ‘Why this guy?’ It’s a working-class town, and they all know that Jeff Bezos, of course, he exploits his workers, so people say, ‘Why should this guy be able to demolish the bridge for his boat?’” The Times reported that hundreds of locals had said on Facebook that they would attend an event called “Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos,” which sounds like a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

“Rotterdammers are proud of their city and don’t tear down iconic buildings just because you are superrich,” Pablo Strörmann, the event organizer, told the Times . (Strörmann also told the newspaper that the event was “mostly” a joke. Too bad!)

It is now unclear whether the city of Rotterdam will indeed dismantle De Hef for Bezos’s benefit. Nor is it clear what will happen to the superyacht, which must presumably find another way to open sea, or be built closer to it — unless Bezos is willing to settle for the world’s largest riverboat. Perhaps Bezos has finally discovered one problem that money can’t solve. Massive wealth will get you a lot. It will soothe fractious city officials and quash union campaigns, but maybe it can’t overcome the sentiment of a city that gives a damn about an old bridge.

Bezos is currently the second-richest man alive, behind Elon Musk. He has quite nearly conquered all he surveys. He can use his money to slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the borders of space. But for now, De Hef stands in the way of his domain over the sea. Congratulations to the people of Rotterdam.

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Nieuw superjacht van Jeff Bezos mag even buitenspelen in Hollandse wateren

Het zal een moeilijke week zijn voor Jeff Bezos. Hij wordt met zevenmijlslaarzen ingehaald door Elon Musk, die nu met afstand de rijkste man ter wereld is. Een kleine opsteker voor de Amazon oprichter: zijn niet bescheiden bootje is bijna klaar.

Het Nederlandse Oceanco doet goede zaken. Eerder dit jaar meldden we al dat de voormalig rijkste man ter wereld een bestelling had geplaatst voor een megajacht van maar liefst 127 meter lang. Daarmee wordt het 't grootste zeiljacht ter wereld. Dat een dergelijke aankoop in de papieren zou lopen hadden we wel kunnen vermoeden, maar nu weten we ook welk astronomisch bedrag ermee gemoeid is. En dankzij de oplettende jachtenspotters van Dutch Yachting hebben we ook beeld.

Compensatiedrang

Het megaschip gaat beschikken over drie masten en drie dekken. Kortom, genoeg ruimte voor z'n medepassagiers om Bezos te ontlopen als hij weer begint op te scheppen over de grootste, de snelste of de verste. Dat Bezos überhaupt de koper is weten we niet van bouwer Oceanco, die uitermate discreet zijn over hun clientèle. Geen wonder, want Oceanco is van de Omaanse miljardair Mohammed Al Barwani en bouwt louter superjachten voor de hyperrijken. Publiciteit is dus 'bad for business'. Het was het in mei uitgekomen boek Amazon Unbound dat dit nieuws bekend maakte. Dus na de ruimte en het internet zijn blijkbaar de internationale wateren het volgende domein waar de kale miljardair zich wil laten gelden.

Peperduur prijskaartje

De Daily Mail meldt dat Bezos naar verluidt € 430 miljoen euro mag neertellen voor zijn nieuwe vaartuig. Pittig bedragje wel, al is het voor Bezos wisselgeld, die op het moment van schrijven volgens Forbes goed is voor zo'n € 166 miljard euro. Hij had dan ook geld genoeg om er een tweede boot bij te bestellen, waar ruimte is voor de helikopter en om wat personeel onder te brengen. Dat bootje komt dan weer bij Damen Shipyards vandaan, uit Gorinchem.

Het schip dat nu bekend is onder de naam 'Y721' zal naar verwachting medio 2022 uitvaren. Verdere technische details zijn op dit moment nog niet bekend.

En hoe dat 'uitlaten' van zo'n schip gaat ziet u in het onderstaande filmpje, van Dutch Yachting.

Zie hier wat onze hoofdredacteur over het bootje te melden heeft!

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Exclusive photos, jeff bezos’ unfinished mega yacht towed away after bridge drama, threats of egging.

Jeff Bezos’ unfinished mega yacht was towed away from a Dutch shipbuilding yard before dawn Tuesday just weeks after Rotterdam residents threatened to pelt the luxury vessel with eggs if the city went through with plans to dismantle a landmark bridge to make way for the $500 million ship.

The 417-foot long, three-masted yacht, which goes by the name Y721 , was relocated from the Oceanco shipyard in Alblasserdam to the Greenport yard just 24 miles away in Rotterdam, according to the German-language daily Der Spiegel.

Video of the towing was posted to YouTube by Dutch yacht enthusiast Hanco Bol.

“We never saw a transport going that fast,” Bol writes of what he witnessed. It took less than three hours for the ship to travel southwest along the Noord canal even though it normally requires nearly twice as much time to traverse the route, according to Bol.

He speculates that Oceanco, the company that was commissioned to build the yacht, chose the timing of the move in order to keep it under wraps given the considerable publicity it has generated.

Rotterdammers who were furious about plans to dismantle “De Hef” bridge , also known as Koningshaven, had threatened to pelt the yacht with eggs if it made the journey.

Bol writes that the yacht’s route was designed to avoid traveling through the Rotterdam city center and underneath “De Hef” — even though it would have saved more time.

Oceanco last month announced that it had dropped its request for the Rotterdam city council to approve the temporary dismantling of the bridge.

The company had indicated that Bezos, the Amazon founder and second-richest person in the world, was willing to foot the bill for the removal of the middle section of the span so that the yacht would be able to sail through the Nieuwe Mass River.

Bol speculates that Oceanco intentionally avoided towing the unfinished yacht underneath “De Hef.”

“I think that was intentional,” he told Der Spiegel. 

“When I was standing on one of the bridges, they shined a searchlight on me, so it wasn’t easy for me to take pictures.”

According to Dutch media reports, it will take several more months for the ship to be completed.

The Post has reached out to Amazon and Oceanco seeking comment.

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It costs $25 million a year to keep jeff bezos' $500 million luxury superyacht afloat — but he earns that in just 3 hours.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has made headlines for his business ventures and extravagant lifestyle.

One of the most notable symbols of his wealth is his superyacht, Koru, which costs around $500 million. This 417-foot luxury sailing yacht , built by Oceanco, features three towering masts and is the tallest sailing yacht in the world.

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Inside the Superyacht Koru

Koru's design is a marvel of modern engineering and luxury. The yacht boasts three decks, including one with a swimming pool, a gym, a spa, and a sauna. The interiors are crafted with the finest materials, providing unparalleled comfort and aesthetics.

Advanced technology enables Koru to be primarily powered by kinetic energy from its sails, reducing the need for a large crew and enhancing its environmental sustainability.

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Annual Operating Costs

Owning a superyacht like Koru involves significant annual expenses. The estimated cost to run and maintain Koru is about $25 million annually. Here's a breakdown of these costs:

Crew Salaries: The yacht accommodates up to 36 crew members. Given the high skill level required, annual crew salaries can be significant but specific figures are not disclosed in the sources.

Maintenance: General maintenance, including repairs and refits, can reach tens of millions. According to Luxury Launches, refits alone can cost up to $20 million.

Fuel: Refueling the yacht can cost upward of $500,000 due to its large fuel capacity.

Insurance: The annual insurance cost for a yacht like Koru is around $5 million.

Docking Fees: Docking fees in prime locations can be around $5,000 per night, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

Utilities and Amenities: Operating the onboard facilities and utilities, including electricity and entertainment systems, can potentially cost between $1 million and $3 million per year.

Security: Additional security measures for such a high-value vessel can cost several million dollars annually.

Luxury Maintenance: Maintaining the yacht's luxury interiors and furnishings can range from $2 million to $5 million annually.

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Koru is often seen cruising in various luxury destinations around the world. However, it is primarily kept in European waters, especially in the Mediterranean. The yacht has also been spotted in the Caribbean and along the coasts of the United States, particularly near Bezos's homes in Florida.

Bezos's Spending Spree and Florida Homes

Jeff Bezos's purchase of Koru is part of a broader pattern of high-value acquisitions. In addition to his superyacht, Bezos has been on a spending spree, acquiring multiple properties in recent years. He most recently invested in several luxurious homes in Florida's exclusive "Billionaire Bunker."

Bezos's Net Worth Surge

In early 2023, Jeff Bezos's net worth was $107 billion. By early 2024, it had surged to $177 billion, a $70 billion gain, according to Fortune. This translates to an increase of $191.8 million daily or about $8 million per hour. To put this into perspective, Bezos earns the equivalent of the median lifetime earnings of a typical U.S. worker ($1.7 million in 2023) in about 12.76 minutes.

Bezos' spending habits reflect his vast wealth and interest in maintaining a luxurious lifestyle while expanding his investments in various sectors.

Koru is a prime symbol of his wealth and taste for luxury. The costs associated with owning and operating such a vessel are substantial, but they are a mere fraction of his overall fortune. As Bezos continues to expand his real estate holdings and enjoy his time on Koru, his lifestyle remains a topic of fascination and envy.

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This article It Costs $25 Million A Year To Keep Jeff Bezos' $500 Million Luxury Superyacht Afloat — But He Earns That In Just 3 Hours originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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Jeff Bezos’ Koru sailing yacht has finally arrived in the US, and it’s so enormous that it did not fit next to other superyachts at the Port of Everglades. The $500 million vessel was finally docked next to gigantic oil tankers at the South Florida seaport.

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Even after assuming the worth of a single grain of rice as $100,000, this financial influencer had to buy large rice bags from Costco to show how much wealth Jeff Bezos has. It would take a staggering 5 hours just to count the value of his Koru megayacht in grains of rice.

While Jeff Bezos is spending billions to launch his own satellite internet service to compete with Elon Musk, his own $500 million megayacht Koru openly flaunts antennas from Musk’s Starlink.

After being vandalized twice by eco-activists, Walmart heiress Nancy Walton did not want to take any chances and had her $300 million Kaos superyacht sail 5,000 miles to the safer waters of the United States. The 4523-ton vessel was first commissioned by the emir of Qatar.

Desperately trying to get rid of the seized $120 million superyacht Alfa Nero, the government of Antigua has filed a counter-appeal against the sanctioned Russian oligarch’s daughter, to proceed with the sale of the vessel to ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt

It’s been more than a year since the UK government seized a stunning $50 million superyacht from a Russian businessman who is not on any sanctions list. Now the furious tycoon is suing the UK authorities to return his vessel, which has a penthouse suite and an infinity wine cellar.

Even after spending $500,000 in fuel for a gruelling 18-day voyage and then stalling his yacht for a month in Fiji. Suleiman Kerimov has lost the legal battle against the US authorities who are now sailing the oligarch’s $325 million Amadea megayacht to the United States.

Saudi Prince is selling his 269 feet long superyacht at a $10 million discount – The gorgeous Sarafsa flaunts timeless interiors, a cinema, a spa pool, a helipad, and a winter garden.

The 242 feet long Lurssen-made Aurora superyacht is on sale for $136 million. With art-deco inspired interiors the stunning vessel can house 16 guests in utmost luxury.

For a billionaire to explore the farthest corners of our planet in utmost luxury – This 345 feet opulent expedition yacht comes with two helicopters, submarine and an outdoor cinema

Elon Musk wants Jeff Bezos to 'get out of his hot tub and yacht' so Blue Origin can be more successful, biographer says

• Elon Musk's biographer said the billionaire wants Jeff Bezos to focus his energy on Blue Origin.
• Walter Isaacson said on the "Diary of a CEO" podcast that Musk wants Bezos to grow the company. 
• Musk previously told the FT that he was trying to goad Bezos so the firm would make more progress.

Elon Musk's biographer said the billionaire wants Jeff Bezos to "get out of his hot tub and yacht," and focus his efforts on his aerospace company, Blue Origin.  

During a recent appearance on the "Diary of a CEO" podcast, Walter Isaacson said the competitors "don't hang out together," but that "Musk respects Bezos." Isaacson, whose biography of Elon Musk came out in September, told the podcast host, Steven Bartlett, how the SpaceX founder views Bezos. He said, "Musk says I want Bezos to succeed. I want him to be driving us into space because the more that do it, the better. I wish he would get out of his hot tub and yacht more often so Blue Origin can be more successful."

Bezos left Amazon in July 2021 and handed the reins to Andy Jassy.

He set sail on his  $500 million megayacht Koru this summer, which reportedly has a hot tub on deck.

In 2021, the SpaceX chief told the Financial Times, "In some ways, I'm trying to goad him into spending more time at Blue Origin so they make more progress. As a friend of mine says, he should spend more time at Blue Origin and less time in the hot tub."  Musk and Bezos have feuded for years over their space ambitions. Isaacson said on the podcast that Musk "hasn't gone ballistic" on the Amazon founder since their quarrel over a patent for a rocket-booster recovery method ended.

Blue Origin filed a paten t for the concept in 2010. It was initially granted in 2014. SpaceX then petitioned the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board a few months later, saying that "the 'rocket science' claimed in the patent was "old hat'."

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In 2015, the board canceled  the remaining 13 of the 15 claims in that patent following a request from Blue Origin itself to do so. The judges ruled mostly in SpaceX's favor.

The idea that Bezos was trying to patent the idea made Musk furious, Isaacson said.

Representatives for Elon Musk didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, made outside of normal working hours. 

Watch: Why Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are in an epic feud that's lasted years

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Move over Musk – Jeff Bezos’ rival satellite internet service reaches key milestone as billionaire space race heats up

• Jamie Harris , Assistant Technology and Science Editor
• Published : 12:44, 6 Sep 2024
• Updated : 12:44, 6 Sep 2024
• Published : Invalid Date,

AMAZON'S satellite internet service has reached a big milestone in its attempt to take on Elon Musk's Starlink.

Billionaires are turning to the skies to beam broadband to people's homes from above.

Musk, 53, has so far led the way with more than 6,000 Starlink satellites in the sky.

The SpaceX -operated service has been used by Ukraine to maintain communications in the war against Russia .

Starlink has even started signing deals with mobile networks starting with T-Mobile in the US.

More recently, Musk announced that Starlink will allow free calls to emergency services.

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Amazon boss Jeff Bezos , 60, has similar space ambitions and the two billionaires have been competing over Nasa contracts to fly to Mars .

But where satellite internet is concerned, Bezos' Project Kuiper has so far lagged behind.

The company hasn't launched any into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) yet, except for two prototypes in November last year.

Project Kuiper is preparing to blast more than 3,000 satellites into space.

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One of the biggest hurdles is regulatory approval.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has already granted Amazon permission to launch those 3,236 satellites across five phases.

However, the firm wil also need permission to operate in other countries as well.

And in a big milestone, it appears the UK's Ofcom regulator is prepared to give the go-ahead too, it's been revealed today.

"Our preliminary view is that we will grant an NGSO [non-geostationary orbit] network licence to Kuiper, having considered the technical coexistence and competition impacts of its NGSO system on existing and future NGSO systems and other spectrum services operating in the same frequencies," Ofcom said.

While it's a big step forward Amazon isn't cleared to go just yet.

Ofcom is now seeking feedback as part of a consultation that will run until October 4.

But experts at ISPreview believe it's "highly unlikely" the regulator will reject it.

There could be some opposition from astronomers who have already complained that too many satellites are ruining the night sky view.

They say the huge growth in satellites is obstructing telescopic space exploration.

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"Astronomers are the canaries in the coal mine for this rapidly expanding experiment in orbit: we see these satellites increasingly affecting our research every day," said Samantha Lawler, Associate professor, Astronomy at University of Regina.

"I have watched over the past five years as satellite streaks in my own research images from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope have changed from an unusual occurrence to lost data in nearly every image."

World's richest people revealed

• Elon Musk - $252.7billion
• Jeff Bezos -$196.4billion
• Mark Zuckerberg - $179billion
• Larry Ellison - $176.8billion
• Bernard Arnault & family - $174.8billion
• Warren Buffett - $146.9billion
• Bill Gates - $136.6billion
• Larry Page - $131.2billion
• Sergey Brin - $125.8billion
• Steve Ballmer - $120.6billion

Data according to Forbes, published on 06/09/2024

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