That 'Private Submersible Superyacht' Is Almost Certainly Never Going To Happen

Over the past few months, a number of outlets have made a big deal about the Migaloo M5 “submersible superyacht,” a 544-foot luxury submarine meant to let the world’s richest folks get away from it all. There’s a side to the story that isn’t often covered, though: Migaloo doesn’t appear to have ever built a submarine, let alone one that costs $2 billion.

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Despite the amount of press Migaloo receives, there’s no record of any orders shipped to customers, or even orders placed with the company. In fact, the Austrian company database doesn’t list any corporations by the name of “Migaloo” in the country — a company which, it’s worth remembering, is landlocked.

MIGALOO PRIVATE SUBMERSILBE YACHTS

Migaloo’s website dates back to 2013, according to WHOIS records, but the oldest version archived is from 2015. Back then, the company was offering “submersible superyachts” in cooperation with a company called Starkad Technologies OÜ, which provided “technical development.” Starkad does show up in Estonian business records, but the company’s 2023 annual report shows just one employee — and an annual operating budget of just under $2,700. The company’s official contact email is a Hotmail account.

Migaloo is the brainchild of Christian Gumpold, the company’s CEO and only listed employee on LinkedIn. Christian made a name for himself designing renders of luxury boats and impossible trains, a skill that appears to have served him well when creating Migaloo. Each of the company’s submarine offerings are presented in render form, and the company’s YouTube page is full of 30-second clips showing pictures of submarines moving through pictures of water. Most are simply titled “MIGALOO Private Submersible Superyachts,” but special credit goes to the descriptively-titled 11-second “Water.”

Water

Rather than creating actual submarines for the world’s richest few, Migaloo appears to create pictures of submarines for magazines read by those richest few (and, of course, NFTs.) It’s unclear what the company would even do if a Bezos or a Musk called them up with $2 billion in hand — it’s unlikely a single person in Estonia could actually assemble anything the company proffers.

The Migaloo M5 is not a real luxury submarine. It’s a picture of a submarine, drawn by someone who draws very nice pictures of luxury items. Don’t expect any more than that.