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Here’s What You Could Buy With a $1 Billion Powerball Jackpot

A superyacht? Sure. A trip to space? Why not?

Cameron Huddleston,

Updated August 12, 2026

AARP

Updated August 12, 2026

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Can you imagine what you’d do with $1 billion? That’s the estimated jackpot for the Powerball drawing on Aug. 12. It will be the biggest jackpot of the year and the eighth-largest prize of all time.

The possibilities are endless. But before you get excited, know that you’ll have to pay Uncle Sam a hefty portion of your earnings — 24 percent in federal taxes off the top, to be exact. Also, you’ll need to decide between annuity payments spread over 30 years and a lump sum of roughly $433.1 million before taxes.

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Still, it’s fun to dream. Let’s explore what you could buy if you suddenly had $1 billion in your bank account.

2 Jeff Bezos-worthy yachts

The Amazon founder owns a 417-foot-long schooner that cost an estimated $500 million. Koru has a 246-foot-long support ship, Abeona, which has a helipad, just in case you forget to pick up a loaf of bread on the way back from Monaco. With $1 billion, you could have two superyachts the size of Bezos’.

the hope diamond repeated on a pink background

AARP (Source: Smithsonian)

2 of the world’s most valuable diamonds

Everybody knows about the Hope Diamond. The 45.5-carat gem is worth an estimated $350 million (although removing its curse would probably cost extra). With your Powerball winnings, you could buy that big blue rock and an even more expensive diamond — the 105.6-carat Kohinoor, with an estimated value topping $500 million — and still have more than $150 million left to expand your collection of fine jewelry.

9 F-35 fighter planes

Lots of rich folks have private planes. But do they have one that can wreak terror from the sky? You could, assuming any country in its right mind would sell you the U.S.’s most advanced warplane. In fact, you could have a fleet of 9 of the roughly $101.5 million airplanes (airport storage not included).

Top 10 Powerball Jackpots So Far

$2.04 billion — Nov. 7, 2022
$1.79 billion — Sept. 6, 2025
$1.77 billion — Oct. 11, 2023
$1.59 billion — Jan. 13, 2016
$1.33 billion — April 6, 2024
$1.08 billion — July 19, 2023
$842 million — Jan. 1, 2024
$768 million — March 27, 2019
$759 million — Aug. 23, 2017
$755 million — Feb. 6, 2023

Source: powerball.com

5 SpaceX Tourist Trips

Fancy a trip to outer space? You could get your chance to see the world in a 13-foot-wide SpaceX Dragon capsule. To boot, you’ll go around the globe every 90 minutes. And, because the trip reportedly costs around $200 million, you could make that voyage 5 times.

79 Mickey Mantle rookie cards

Collectors argue about which baseball card is worth the most, but the 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card is hard to beat. It fetched $12.6 million at auction in 2022.

1,290 shares of Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett’s fabled money-management prowess has launched the stock of Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company, to $775,000 per Class A share at the close of trading on Aug. 11. As a shareholder, you could attend the company’s annual meeting, which has been described as “Woodstock for capitalists.” Plus, you’d probably score plenty of Dilly Bars and Coke at the event, since Berkshire owns Dairy Queen and a big chunk of Coca-Cola.

1,537 Rolls-Royce Phantoms

At $32 million, the Rolls-Royce Droptail is the most expensive car. You could afford 31 of these vehicles with a $1 billion jackpot, but only four have been custom-built for their owners. Because no more will be produced, you'll have to settle for 1,537 Rolls-Royce Phantoms with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of up to $650,550.

225,169 ounces of gold

Want to show off your riches? What better way to say “I’m loaded” than with gold? At $4,441.10 an ounce as of Aug. 11, $1 billion would get you 225,169.44 ounces of the precious metal. But you’d better have a sturdy floor in your personal Fort Knox: That much gold weighs in at more than 14,000 pounds.

12 million barrels of oil

Concerned about having enough fuel for those Rolls-Royce Phantoms? Fear not: With crude oil prices at $83.20 a barrel as of Aug. 11, your $1 billion could buy 12 million barrels.

166 million tall Starbucks caramel Frappuccinos

Starbucks is known for its tasty drinks, particularly its caramel Frappuccinos. If you had $1 billion, you could buy approximately 166 million tall ones at around $6 apiece, depending on the location.

AARP (Source: Alamy Stock Photo)

1 billion boxes of Kraft Original Macaroni & Cheese

All that worrying about what to buy calls for comfort food, and you can’t do much better for that than mac and cheese. In mid-August, Walmart was selling Kraft Original Macaroni & Cheese for $1 per box. That’s 1 billion boxes of cheesy goodness.

50 million AARP annual memberships

An AARP membership costs $20 a year, so with $1 billion, you could buy a membership for 50 million of your closest friends. That would be enough to make nearly 40 percent of the 125.5 million Americans age 50-plus part of the AARP family.

Cameron Huddleston is an award-winning personal finance journalist and author of Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances. Her work has appeared in Kiplinger.com, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Forbes Advisor, Chicago Tribune, Business Insider and many more online and print publications.

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