7 billionaires with super-expensive hobbies: Jeff Bezos has his Blue Origins space flight, but what about Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey?

Jul 3 , 2021

Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison enjoy splurging on extreme experiences. Photos: AFP, EPA-EFE, AP

CEOs at Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Virgin love splurging their millions on space tourism, superyachts, submarines and more extreme activities

Zuckerberg rides a US$12,000 electric surfboard in Hawaii while Oracle’s Larry Ellison has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on yacht racing

In just a few short weeks, Jeff Bezos will take the riskiest flight of his life, one that takes him 100km (62 miles) above Earth, right to the edge of space.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is ready to take the first passenger space flight of Blue Origin on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Photo: Reuters

The soon-to-be-ex-Amazon CEO is something of an adventurer, what with his trips out to sea or to the bottom of caves. But that doesn’t exactly make him unique among his peers – in fact, a passion for extreme experiences seems to be a common trait among the world’s billionaires.

And Bezos isn’t even the only executive with a passion for space travel. Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Paul Allen and Sergey Brin have all expressed an interest in leaving planet Earth.

But while outer space appears to be the dominant source of fascination for the world’s most powerful people, there are plenty of other billionaires with extreme pursuits of their own.

Jeff Bezos

Blue Moon, a robotic space cargo carrier and lander design concept by Bezos’ space company Blue Origin. Photo: Reuters

Jeff Bezos has used his extensive resources to fund extreme trips – and now, space travel. While Bezos made his almost US$200 billion fortune redefining retail, it seems his true passion lies in more extreme pursuits.

The Amazon CEO has spent his holiday time over the years on a range of unusual and oftentimes exclusive pursuits. He went on a 80km (50-mile) horseback ride through West Texas alongside his father and his brother, Mark; he’s rappelled hundreds of feet down into dark caves, equipped with a harness and a headlamp; and he once spent three weeks at sea recovering pieces of the engine of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, which took the first humans to the moon.