Does Jeff Bezos really need a $500 million dollar yacht?

When I saw a photo of the Amazon founders new mega sailing yacht I found myself thinking, ‘What would possess a person to want to own something so cumbersome?’ I’ll admit I can’t even fathom what being a multi billionaire would do to my life and psyche but I don’t think I would ever feel the need to be the owner of a mega yacht.

Photo by Daniel Sharp on Unsplash

I started to look into why the 1% loved these expensive water toys and I found out that it is as much about status as it is about privacy. Not only do these jaw dropping yachts have it all, they also require tremendous work to keep them operating. For the ultra rich taking a family vacation out of the public eye is priceless and being able to take your helicopter to your mega yacht in the Maldives is just an added bonus.

I found this sweet data art on the 20 most expensive yachts in the world from the team at siyachts.com and the top yacht on this chart makes Jeff Bezos sailing yacht look like it cost chump change.

At $4.8 billion the History Supreme is covered in 22,000 pounds of gold and platinum. Apparently that wasn’t extravagant enough for its owner, the wealthiest man in Malaysia, Robert Kuok. He had to add a statue made of a T-rex bone and a wall made of meteorite rocks to the ships master bedroom. I guess Jeff Bezos’ yacht doesn’t even seem so extravagant after all.