A $300 million superyacht named Launchpad slipped through Seattle's Ballard Locks on Tuesday, the same day its owner's company disclosed plans to cut nearly 1,400 jobs in Washington state. The timing was impossible to miss. The 387-foot vessel, built by Dutch shipbuilder Feadship, spent Tuesday cruising from Elliott Bay through the locks toward Lake Union, where it docked on Westlake just blocks from Meta's offices. A lock operator with 14 years on the job told GeekWire it was the biggest yacht he'd ever seen come through.
Zuckerberg was not on board. Crew members shook their heads when asked, and private jet trackers suggest the Meta CEO may be in Monterey, California.
His Instagram showed him working out in a camouflage vest. The layoffs hit 1,395 employees across Meta's Puget Sound operations, roughly 20% of its local workforce. Per FOX 13 Seattle, the breakdown by location: Bellevue lost 699 workers, Seattle's Dexter Avenue office 251, Redmond 206, and remote Washington-based employees 231.
Affected staff were notified May 20 and will remain on payroll through July 22.
Meta's Chief People Officer Janelle Gale called the cuts "not an easy tradeoff" in a memo to staff. The companywide reduction eliminates 8,000 positions, or about 10% of Meta's global headcount, while 7,000 employees are being reassigned to AI-focused roles. The cuts are funding an AI infrastructure push at staggering scale. Meta expects capital expenditures between $125 billion and $145 billion this year, according to The Spokesman-Review.
Combined with Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft, total AI spending across the four tech giants could approach $700 billion. On the water, the contrast drew a crowd and a heckler. One onlooker shouted for Zuckerberg to "pay some f***ing taxes." A local who has lived on an old wooden boat for 40 years watched the yacht pull in and told KUOW her only thought was "he should donate some money to the city and then go."
Crew members polishing the yacht sang along to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as the Launchpad sat on Lake Union, its Marshall Islands flag flying.
Meta has now cut nearly 2,000 Seattle-area workers since October 2025, including 331 from Reality Labs in January. The company's metaverse division has lost $76.9 billion through 2025, while its family of apps division generated more than $352 billion in profit since 2021. By Wednesday afternoon, the Launchpad remained stationed on Westlake. Zuckerberg has never officially confirmed he owns the vessel.
