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In case you needed further proof that billionaires are living in a completely different world from the rest of us, Valve founder Gabe Newell is dropping $300 million on a giant ship to explore the deep ocean.
Per Luxury Launches and Super Yacht Times, two publications which themselves further prove my point, Newell's US-based marine research organization Inkfish has partnered up with ship builder Vard to design and construct the 100-meter custom-built research vessel, RV6000. The mega ship will be the flagship of Inkfish's existing fleet of ships, which includes the RV Dagon and RV Hydra.
The RV6000 is specifically designed for deep-sea mapping and general research, equipped with a gondola mounted sensor suite, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can operate at 6,000 meters of depth, hangars, a helideck, and support for two manned submersibles.
"Our research vessels are at the heart of what we do – they're how we get science done. We're excited to be working with Vard on the next step in that journey: a world-class vessel that will dramatically increase our capacity and broaden the support we can offer the global research community. This has been a unique opportunity to involve the researchers to collaborate with the ship builder and the operators from the first stage of the design process," said Inkfish maritime operations lead Stu Buckle.
In all fairness to Newell, his passion for exploring the seas isn't anything new, having purchased Inkfish and the private deep-sea exploration platform, Hadal Exploration System, in 2022. Just this month, he invested some of his staggering $9.5 billion net worth in custom yacht builder Oceanco, and he's known to go scuba diving on his lunch breaks.
Basically, I want to differentiate Newell from your average, bored multibillionaire buying things just to buy things. He might be doing that, but he's at least proven himself to be genuinely interested in the thing he's buying.
