Gaming billionaire spending £600m on ‘world’s most advanced marine research vessel’

Gaming billionaire Gabe Newell has commissioned the world’s most expensive and advanced marine research vessel.

Norwegian shipbuilder VARD has secured the contract from Newell, which is worth almost €700million (£595million), to design and build the RV11000.

The deal, awarded by Newell’s Inkfish organisation, is the largest order of its kind ever placed with a Norwegian shipyard.

The RV11000 vessel will be capable of operating at depths of up to 11,000 metres and is intended to support some of the most ambitious deep-sea scientific missions undertaken to date.

Gaming Billionaire

At 162 metres long and 28 metres wide, RV11000 will be significantly larger than Inkfish’s first purpose-built research vessel, RV6000, which was contracted with VARD in 2025.

The new ship will join Inkfish’s growing fleet alongside RV Hydra and RV Dagon.

Rune Rødset, VARD’s Senior Vice-President for Sales and Marketing, said: ‘The RV11000 is not just another research vessel – it represents a new level of ambition in deep-sea exploration.

‘No other vessel has combined such a wide range of newly developed and highly advanced technologies into a single platform dedicated to operating at the deepest parts of the ocean.’

He added: ‘Being part of a project of this magnitude is both humbling and inspiring. The innovation level, and the determination from Inkfish have resulted in a vessel that stands in a class of its own.’

Deep sea research

Developed by Vard Design in Ålesund, Norway, in partnership with Inkfish and technical partner YTMC, the vessel is being designed for a wide range of deep-ocean operations, including seabed mapping, sediment coring, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployment and submarine support.

Among its capabilities will be facilities to launch and recover submarines, operate ROVs at extreme depths and collect sediment samples using a 40-metre coring system.

The vessel will also be equipped with advanced oceanographic instruments, including systems for measuring temperature, salinity and pressure at depth.

VARD says the ship will feature the largest battery installation ever fitted to a vessel, allowing up to 12 hours of silent scientific operations powered entirely by battery systems.

The ship is intended to support a broad range of scientific missions, and, according to Inkfish, the vessel’s objective is to help researchers explore previously uncharted regions of the ocean and contribute to what it describes as the most comprehensive deep-ocean dataset assembled so far.

The vessel will be built through VARD’s integrated production network. The hull will be constructed at the company’s shipyard in Tulcea, Romania, before being fitted out, commissioned and delivered from one of VARD’s Norwegian facilities.

The ship will incorporate systems supplied by several VARD subsidiaries, including Vard Electro, which will provide integrated power, control, bridge and communications technology, and Seaonics, which will supply specialist lifting and handling equipment.

Delivery of RV11000 is scheduled for the first quarter of 2030.