Billionaire handshakes at parties, offices, and even the White House are nothing new. What’s rare, however, is when their floating palaces convene in one place for a high-seas tête-à-tête. And what better setting than the ultimate superyacht spa, France’s upscale La Ciotat Shipyard, the Riviera’s temple of refit and repair. As I write this, across the Atlantic, the multi-million-dollar pride and joy of tech titans line up in near-perfect formation.
Taking up prime berths and top-tier services at the legendary yard is a jaw-dropping lineup, Jeff Bezos’s $500 million Koru and $75 million Abeona, Larry Ellison’s $160 million Musashi, his former boat now owned by David Geffen, $490 million Rising Sun, and Google cofounder Sergey Brin’s $450 million Dragonfly. Together, they form a $1.6 billion panorama of maritime power.
Most of these vessels hover around $500 million, with the “entry-level” yacht still worth $160 million. It’s no surprise then that the scene inside La Ciotat feels choreographed, scaffolding clings to gleaming hulls like haute couture, while crews move in seamless precision, tending to these floating estates.
Yachting fans might be flocking to the Fort Lauderdale Yacht Show, but the true spectacle of superyachts is unfolding quietly within this French shipyard, where the world’s most extravagant vessels come to rejuvenate. Docking and refit here are anything but economical, but then again, owners who send their motor yachts in for a little TLC aren’t counting pennies.
For perspective, the half-a-billion-dollar Oceanco-built Koru, too large for the 4,300-ton Atlas shiplift, rests in the Great Dry Dock. Pump operations alone cost around $4,000, and docking this 416-foot marvel racks up about $900 per day. A standard refit lasting 30 days or more adds another $30,000 merely for quay occupancy. Its routine annual yard period can total $7–9 million.
Her $75 million Abeona support yacht isn’t far behind, commanding about $3 million in yard bills. Musashi, the 288-foot Feadship eligible for Atlas lift access, incurs $3–5 million for a typical refit cycle. A full repaint or major paint overhaul easily doubles the figure to $7–10 million.
The 450-foot Rising Sun, now under David Geffen’s command, is among the largest pleasure crafts at MB92 La Ciotat; for giants of that scale, routine annual upkeep sits in the $9–10 million range.
Meanwhile, one of the most talked-about tech-titan yachts this season, Sergey Brin’s Dragonfly, stretches roughly 480 feet and carries a valuation near $450 million. The price of her rejuvenation? Nearly $11 million, covering quay rates, Atlas hardstanding fees, planned machinery maintenance, paint touch-ups, and varnish.
Keeping these superyachts company were Mark Zuckerberg’s $300 million superyacht Launchpad and her support vessel Wingman, which were in La Ciotat for more than two months and departed a few days ago for an Atlantic crossing back home.
Inside La Ciotat’s “wellness retreat” for superyachts
Each year, these floating mansions roam extensively through summer and the holidays, only to retreat here for recovery. The yard brims with avant-garde machinery, notably the 4,300-ton boat elevator that lifts goliaths with the ease of a sports car jack. Once ashore, the vessels undergo complete hull works, boot-top refreshes, machinery servicing, electrical rewiring, and AV-IT upgrades that bring their digital hearts up to date.
The logistics are a marvel of engineering. The heavy-lift Atlas shiplift feeds a hardstanding area that accommodates around six yachts up to 115 meters simultaneously. Alongside it, a 200-meter dry dock subdivides with movable cofferdams and staging, letting multiple projects progress under different trades at once, a ballet of welders, painters, electricians, and surveyors working in symphony.
Even paintwork, often requiring a full haul-out elsewhere, can be done in-water here thanks to precision containment systems that meet strict emission standards. The result is a seamless cycle of motion and maintenance, a daily orchestration at La Ciotat Shipyard, where billionaires entrust their billion-dollar dreams to be reborn, gleaming, and ready for another season at sea.
As of late October 2025, Koru, Abeona, Musashi, Rising Sun, and Dragonfly are all docked at La Ciotat Shipyard, according to AIS data on MarineTraffic. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg’s $300 million Launchpad would’ve been part of this billionaires’ yard party too, but the gleaming vessel recently slipped out of La Ciotat for Gibraltar, possibly en route home after her own round of touch-ups.
