Watch: Zuckerberg's superyacht arrives in Seattle just as Meta cuts 1,400 local jobs

[cbabe]

https://www.geekwire.com/2026/photos-mark-zuckerbergs-superyacht-arrives-in-seattle-the-same-day-meta-discloses-1400-local-job-cuts/

Video at link

BY TODD BISHOP & JOHN COOK on May 26, 2026 at 7:42 pm

Watch: Zuckerberg’s superyacht arrives in Seattle just as Meta cuts 1,400 local jobs

Mark Zuckerberg’s $300 million superyacht passed through Seattle’s Ballard Locks on Tuesday, the same day Meta disclosed plans to cut nearly 1,400 jobs in Washington state.

The 387-foot Launchpad, built by Dutch shipbuilder Feadship, traveled from Elliott Bay through the locks toward Lake Union, drawing a crowd along the walkway.

The timing of the boat’s arrival in Seattle and the job cuts was coincidental, but the irony was not lost among the people who hustled down to the locks to see the giant yacht after word spread through the neighborhood and online. Some booed from the shore and heckled the crew.

… more …

(How come he gets to use public resources if he doesn’t pay taxes for them? snark)

[PCB66]

1. I'm just a

poor Cracker boy from Polk County Florida. All I can afford is a 18 ft bass fishing boat.

[sweetapogee]

2. my boat

my boat is a 20 year old 16 foot tin. And I have a 7 figure net worth. I feel very happy to have that boat. I don't care what anyone else has. Mine was paid for in cash and gets me out on the water. Enjoy your bass boat, they are great fun!

[Jerry2144]

18. I can afford a sheet of paper

Folded into a boat shape

[MIButterfly]

3. $300 million for a boat for one family?

I find that obscene. Nobody should have that kind of money.

How much good would $300 million do for this country instead of being used for a billionaire's ostentatious plaything?

[PatSeg]

8. Or that $300 million

could be used to pay the salaries of the 1400 employees he laid off. I only hear complaints about Facebook/Meta's horrible customer service (or NO customer service), but he just keeps laying people off?

Yeah, I think Zuck has jumped the shark.

[DFW]

9. It will surely provide a few jobs. I say, let him have it

What should the country do? Seize and sell the boat? That will yield enough to hand out 90¢ to every man, woman, and child in the USA minus distribution costs.

I’m sure that will pull a lot of votes our way, right?

We’ll have to be more inventive in financing the nation than just enacting a few feel-good jealousy taxes that won’t benefit anyone except those collecting them (if their skimming skills are up to it).

[Manatee]

17. And, if were honest,

that is 0.018% of Meta's workforce.

[Celerity]

25. Your maths are off. Meta recently laid off over 10 per cent (around 8,000) of its 78,000 workforce. Taking the 1,400

person (which was part of the 8,000 lay-offs) cohort, just that is around 1.8 per cent of the 78,000 prior total, not the 0.018% of Meta's workforce you stated. 0.018 percent of 78,000 is 14.

Cheers

Cel

[Manatee]

27. I was referring to

the 1,400 employees mentioned in this specific article, so my math is 100% correct. Thanks.

[DonCoquixote]

19. it is too late to seize and sell the boat, but

we an raise those "feel good jealous ytaes"so that this time next year, he has lesscash to bu the bigger boat, and you know he is alreaydplanning on that, or a space yacht. off couse, if we really had courage,, we can help those famrer whose wter has been sucked dry by his data centers, but help poor people, nah.

[Rob H.]

24. Zuckerberg and META are leeches

This data is eight-and-a-half years old, but still. From the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy:

Fact Sheet: Facebook and Tax Avoidance
November 5, 2017

Since Facebook became a public company, its annual revenues have increased by 250 percent from around $8 billion in 2013 to nearly $28 billion last year. In the same time period, the company’s before-tax profits shot up four-and-a-half fold to $12.5 billion. But in this time it has also managed to avoid billions of dollars in U.S. taxes.

Over eight years, Facebook paid less than half the statutory corporate tax rate.

Between 2010 and 2015, Facebook had pre-tax U.S. profits of $14.8 billion, on which it paid 16.5 percent in U.S. taxes—less than half the official U.S. corporate tax rate. And in three of these years, Facebook paid no taxes at all to the United States Treasury.

One tax loophole that Facebook has led the pack in exploiting is the “stock option loophole.” Facebook and other big corporations often compensate their executives with stock options (options to purchase shares of company stock at a discounted rate). When those options are exercised, the company is allowed to deduct from its taxable income the difference between the value of the shares and what the employee pays for the stock, even though the company doesn’t have to spend anything to provide the stock option to its executives. Between 2010 and 2015, Facebook saved $5.8 billion in taxes through the stock option loophole. This means that American taxpayers have subsidized massive compensation packages for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s other executives.

Facebook also likely has avoided U.S. taxes by claiming that $2.9 billion of the company’s profits were earned offshore, and are “permanently reinvested” outside the United States. Some fraction of the company’s offshore profits may reside in Facebook’s subsidiaries in known foreign tax havens such as Ireland and Singapore.

All emphases added by me.

PDF of the fact sheet is here.

[mopinko]

4. yt link-

&t=8s

[cbabe]

6. Thanks.

[The Blue Flower]

7. Must be seen to be believed

This is in my former neighborhood. I used to come home from work, change my shoes, and walk down to the locks to watch the boats and the salmon in the fish ladder. The best boat day was the one when a flotilla of tall-masted sailing ships came through the locks from all over the world.

[The Madcap]

5. Where are the orcas when you need them?

This type of flagrant display is getting waaayyy out of hand. How long can it last before the blades are sharpened?

[PatSeg]

10. It is flagrant indeed

He might as well put a huge sign on his yacht saying, "What are you going to do about it?" There could be a maniacal cartoon villain laugh as well.

[GoCubsGo]

34. Or, one of those alleged underwater drones.

The kind that the Ukrainians are allegedly using to take out Russian naval vessels.

[Dawson Leery]

11. Fleets of Yachts.

And people wonder why is America falling behind?

[NEOH]

12. Epstein Class...nt

[TBF]

13. Billionaires are going to billionaire -

until we put an end to this nonsense.

The easiest place to start would be elimination of the cap on social security contributions. Others have proposed various types of wealth taxes.

[PatrickforB]

22. Damned right! Tax these parasites OUT OF EXISTANCE. There is NO excuse for this nation permitting

billionaires.

[BobTheSubgenius]

14. Yachts, long a staple of the "look how rich I am" inventory are being supplanted.

Now, you are nowhere on the Croesus List unless you have your own space program.

[Bobstandard]

15. Avoids taxes with Marshall Islands registration

What a patriotic American. Tax billionaires!

[Traildogbob]

29. Yes

I am certain I pay more taxes for my 14 foot Jon boat with a 15 horsepower outboard Johnson.

[Manatee]

31. I think

you mean equity. It's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

[Traildogbob]

32. Thank you.

Brain fart, I know that. Embarrassing. 🫣
I am certain I have caught more fish on the Jon boat though. Well worth the taxes for the meals I have gotten.

[sop]

16. It's only 387' long, Bezos' mega-yacht is 417'.

[dlk]

20. Pigs at the trough...

There is never enough for those with the more pathology

[Emile]

21. Shameless

[Joinfortmill]

23. Tax these corporate bums.

[cbabe]

26. Toll fare charge at the Locks at the very least.

National parks charge fees. Locks are federal. And cost a bunch to operate. So charge a mega yacht fee.

[Sogo]

28. Although my regard for Zuckerberg is nil, that is one beautiful boat!

Can't say I wouldn't take it if it was in my world of possibilities. Freaking beautiful!!!

[Botany]

30. $300 million $s of drone bait. What a disgusting use of his money.

Fun fact after the 2016 election Facebook changed its name to Meta because they knowingly helped
to disseminate Russia misinformation. Facebook also paid a $5 billion dollar fine too.

[orthoclad]

33. Seize it and make it a hospital or famine relief ship.