Former Google CEO Larry Page has quietly added yet another private island to his collection.
The billionaire co-founder, who has a known penchant for purchasing islands, has been freshly revealed as the owner of yet another.
According to documents reviewed by Business Insider, Page in 2018 shelled out $32 million for Cayo Norte — a large parcel of land known for being ringed by reefs, a haven for sea turtles and full of white sand beaches — located 20 nautical miles east of Puerto Rico. At nearly 300 acres, it’s the largest privately owned island in Puerto Rico.
The publication added that Page bought the isle using the same LLC he’d previously used to buy other islands.
In all, the 50-year-old is known to have five islands located across the globe, from the South Pacific to the Caribbean, where he also owns Cayo’s close neighbor, the Lollik Islands, for which he paid $23 million in 2014.
It’s unknown what the tech exec — who began distancing himself from Google, and public life in general, in 2019 — plans to do with Cayo Norte. Locals tell Business Insider that, since Page purchased it, they haven’t noticed any signs of development. But some have seen helicopters landing there.
Area regulars also report that individuals have been seen partaking in the Silicon Valley-beloved activity of hydrofoiling, which is essentially surfing with a special board.
Environmental conservationists have their fingers crossed that Page will not disturb Cayo Norte’s nature, as it has high ecological value to the area and could disturb the region’s ecosystem if disrupted.
“Our hope is that this guy doesn’t want this as an investment property that will be developed and ruined. If it can be protected with that north coast of [the nearby island] Culebra, that would be ideal,” Mary Ann Lucking, director of coral-conservation NGO CORALations told Business Insider. “The value of protecting a place like that is not seeing those impacts. Keeping it as is, with the vegetation that’s there.”
