There’s a $200,000 Diamond-Making Machine For Sale on Alibaba — and That Says a Lot About the Industry
The lab-grown diamond market is expected to reach about $22 billion by 2031.
Key Takeaways
- The online marketplace Alibaba has a diamond-making device up for sale for $200,000 in a sign that diamond production is democratizing, reports Ars Technica.
- The machine has the ability to create lab-grown diamonds at a time when lab-grown gems are on the rise.
- Lab-grown diamonds are up to 90% less expensive than natural diamonds and look exactly the same to the human eye.
In , diamond company De Beers launched a marketing campaign with the slogan “.” Fifty years later, the company created justifying the price of diamonds with the slogan, “Isn’t two months’ salary a small price to pay for something that lasts forever?”
Now, De Beers is to bring sales up, and you can buy a for $200,000 on Alibaba.
It’s a sign that diamond production is democratizing, .
In the past five years, lab-grown gem sales have burgeoned and made the price of mined stones less appealing, according to diamond expert . The lab-grown diamond market was $13 billion last year and is expected to reach about $22 billion by 2031.
Ankur Daga, CEO of the fine jewelry company Angara, estimated that half of all engagement rings sold this year will have lab-grown stones, a significant jump from 2% in 2018.
“The diamond industry is in trouble,” Daga .
As of press time, natural cost around $4,000 while of the same weight go for around $620.
How a lab-grown diamond machine works
The 44-ton device uses (HPHT) technology to take a diamond seed, or a tiny diamond particle that starts the whole process, and transform it into a lab-grown diamond. Alibaba focuses more on , so the machine they have for sale would likely be bought and used by a company with specialized knowledge.
Lab-grown diamonds are less expensive than natural diamonds and look to the human eye. They can only be told apart with special equipment in a .
They also don’t carry the same as naturally found diamonds, which have to be mined in unsafe conditions.
Even with this kind of growth, and machines like the one sold through Alibaba, Zimnisky says that naturally-found diamonds will still have a place in the future.
“Human desire for rare and valuable objects runs pretty deep within us,” . “I don’t think that’s going to, all of a sudden, change.”
Key Takeaways
- The online marketplace Alibaba has a diamond-making device up for sale for $200,000 in a sign that diamond production is democratizing, reports Ars Technica.
- The machine has the ability to create lab-grown diamonds at a time when lab-grown gems are on the rise.
- Lab-grown diamonds are up to 90% less expensive than natural diamonds and look exactly the same to the human eye.
In , diamond company De Beers launched a marketing campaign with the slogan “.” Fifty years later, the company created justifying the price of diamonds with the slogan, “Isn’t two months’ salary a small price to pay for something that lasts forever?”
Now, De Beers is to bring sales up, and you can buy a for $200,000 on Alibaba.
It’s a sign that diamond production is democratizing, .
