The value of a 400 oz gold bar hit $1M for the first time in 2024

All of the world's gold, visualized

Out of the total above-ground stock of gold (weighing roughly 216,265 metric tons), the largest share is found in jewelry (97,149 metric tons).

See silver price rallies over time

Silver prices hit an all-time high in January 2026 at $121.67 per ounce. Silver has experienced several rallies over the past six decades, often driven by macroeconomic stress.

View the most expensive materials on Earth, led by those forged in particle accelerators

Californium-252—valued at $27.8M per gram, as of 2025—is far rarer and more valuable than gold, silver, or diamonds due to production and transportation costs. The most expensive substance ever found or created is antimatter, costing approximately $62.5T per gram.

Explore the history of the iPhone from 2007 to 2023

The first iPhone was launched without an app store, while security features like Face ID were only incorporated into the hardware starting in 2017. That year was the first when an iPhone cost over $1,000.

The insane growth of America's millionaire class

The average net worth for an American household is now $1M, according to 2024 data from the Federal Reserve. How did being a millionaire—a word that was once a status symbol—become the norm? This article answers that question and more, such as what the average millionaire's assets look like in detail. Read the article here.

The mysterious Fort Knox houses much of America’s gold reserves

This fortified vault, built in 1936, is part of the US Mint, but it doesn’t create any currency. Only a presidential order can open Fort Knox—there has not been an audit of its contents since 1953.

Walmart was the first traditional retailer to crack the $1T club

In early 2026, the company joined major tech companies Nvidia, Apple, and Meta (among others) as one of the rare firms with a market capitalization beyond $1T. See the latest top companies here.

One $100 investment in the Medallion Fund skyrockets over time

The Medallion Fund, the famously secretive quant fund that invests billions of dollars for the partners and employees of a single firm with a legendary track record, has trounced the market for more than three decades. While its results are an extreme outlier, this visualization showcases the power of compound interest.

Ranking valuations of NBA teams

NBA teams were worth a total of $138B in 2024, with the Golden State Warriors the highest-valued at over $9B, according to research and analysis conducted by sports business outlet Sportico. Dive into the data with this write-up and visualization.

American Express was the first company to offer 'gold' cards to borrowers

American Express began offering gold cards to affluent consumers in 1966. However, other credit card companies began offering similar, premium cards in the 1980s, which quickly became a status symbol for wealthy Americans.

The trillion-dollar coin is a proposed platinum coin with a face value of $1T, which could be used to reduce the national debt

This conceptual strategy was first proposed in 2011 as a potential alternative to raising the US debt ceiling. Although there were several high-profile proponents of the idea, it was eventually rejected in 2013 by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve officials.

A 6-liter bottle of wine once sold for $1M

Some fine wines are considered alternative investments that could grow in value over time.

Stablecoins' market cap surged during 2021's crypto bull market

In 2020, the value of all stablecoins was equivalent to just 1% of all physical US dollars. Roughly five years later in August 2025, that value had jumped to roughly 11% of all US cash in circulation.

Read about how reality TV show prizes have been diluted by inflation

The TV show "Survivor," for instance, premiered in 2000, and the $1M prize money hasn't increased since. Adjusted for inflation, the value of $1M in 2000 is about $519K in 2026.

Many bitcoin enthusiasts have compared the cryptocurrency to digital gold

Gold is valued for its stability and reliability, serving as a hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty. Bitcoin shares both of these characteristics, but also provides near-instant liquidity and isn’t subject to government regulation.

Tiffany & Co. released a $200K Advent calendar in 2021

Tiffany & Co. has released ultra-luxury Advent calendars containing more than $100K worth of jewelry, including gold bracelets, diamond earrings, and platinum pendants. The 2021 edition cost $200K and featured daily drawers of high-end pieces.

Visualizing the history of money

Money is any medium of exchange used in payments for goods or services and can take many forms. From cattle and shells in ancient times to paper and blockchain today, money has taken many shapes and sizes. This infographic illustrates some of the major forms of exchange world cultures have used over the last 5,000 years.

Nike made $126M in the first year of Air Jordan sales

The first pair of Air Jordans hit shelves in 1985 for $65. The company expected to sell $3M worth of shoes in the first three years, but ultimately blew past that goal in the first year of sales.

Becoming an Olympic swimmer costs tens of thousands of dollars

When you see Olympic athletes win gold, it's the culmination of years of hard work and discipline. But it isn't all sweat equity. Before ever stepping foot on the world stage, these athletes have to pay or find funding for private coaching and lessons, club memberships, and meet fees, with estimates that it costs $25K to $40K to make it to the Olympics.

The Times Square New Year's ball has been redesigned 8 times

The first iteration was made of iron and wood, weighing in at 700 pounds. The 2025 version is made of 5,280 crystals and 32,256 LED lights and weighs a whopping 12,350 pounds.

The story of the first commercial US oil well and why crude oil is measured in barrels

The 1859 oil discovery in Titusville, Pennsylvania, sparked a boom in oil exploration and production to meet the demand for kerosene lamp fuel. Because the 42-gallon barrel was a readily available container already in use for shipping fish, butter, wine, and other goods, it was adopted by the Petroleum Producers Association in 1872 and by both the US Geological Survey and the US Bureau of Mines in 1882.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

In 2021, someone paid $2M for an unopened 'Super Mario Bros.'

The collectibles site Rally announced in 2021 that an unopened "Super Mario Bros." cartridge sold for $2M. That's the highest price ever paid for a video game.

'The Wizard of Oz' flopped in theaters but exploded on TV

The film cost $2.7M to make—$1M more than the average production in 1939, but didn’t recoup it for almost two decades. Its success is mainly due to television. It aired annually from 1956 to 1965 and was watched by more than 49% of all television viewers.

Horror grossed more than $1B at the box office for the first time in 2017

It was the first time the genre broke the barrier for domestic box offices, powered by hits like “Get Out,” “IT” and “Split.” Since then, horror movies have remained commercial juggernauts: In 2025, the genre surpassed the $1B mark by September.

The first Coachella lost $1M

Coachella is now the premier live music festival in the US, but it almost didn't survive its financially catastrophic first year, which featured extreme heat and attracted only 50,000 attendees. The festival did not return until 2001—thanks to entertainment company AEG, which purchased Goldenvoice and provided the capital needed to continue.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Use this calculator to find the dollar value of your mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care for your children.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spurring new Ebola vaccine development for the Bundibugyo species.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.