Here’s What You Could Buy With the Powerball Jackpot

$1.09 billion prize could take a very long time to spend — or not

John Waggoner,

Updated April 03, 2024

AARP

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En español

Published October 12, 2023

/ Updated April 03, 2024

A faned out display of Powerball lottery tickets against a soft focus background

Getty Images

Somewhere out there, a very lucky person may soon be wondering what to do with the $1.09 billion Powerball jackpot – the fourth-largest in history.

In reality, the winner won’t pocket the full amount. Taxes will take a very large bite out of the total, of course, and the winner will face the choice between a lump sum or an annuity. The annuity would pay out approximately $640 million.

But just for fun let’s see what, exactly, you could buy if you suddenly found yourself with a cool $1.09 billion in your bank account:

2

Jeff Bezos’ yachts

Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has a 417-foot schooner that cost an estimated $500 million. The Koru has a 246-foot support ship, the Abeona, which has a helipad, just in case you forgot to pick up a loaf of bread on the way back from Monaco. And, with $1.09 billion, you could have two yachts the size of the Koru, just in case someone wants to borrow one.

Top 10 Powerball Jackpots

$2.04 billion – Nov. 7, 2022
$1.765 billion – Oct. 11, 2023
$1.586 billion – Jan. 13, 2016
$1.09 billion – April 3, 2024
$1.08 billion – July 19, 2023
$842.4 million - Jan. 1, 2024
$768.4 million – March 27, 2019
$758.7 million – Aug. 23, 2017
$754.6 million – Feb. 6, 2023
$731.1 million – Jan. 20, 2021

Source: powerball.com

3

Hope Diamonds

The Hope Diamond is worth about $350 million. You could get three of the big blue diamonds with $1.09 billion, although removing the curse would probably be extra.

10

F-35 fighter planes

Lots of rich folk 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 most advanced U.S. warplane. In fact, you could have a fleet of 10 of the $100 million airplanes like the one that crashed recently in South Carolina, although the airport would not be included.

19

SpaceX Tourist Trips

Travel is broadening, and what could be more broadening than a space trip? You could get your chance to see the world in three days on a 13-foot-wide SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. To boot, you’ll go around the world every 90 minutes. And, because you’ve got $1.09 billion, and the trip costs $55 million per seat, you could make that trip 19 times.

86

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. Are there even 86 Mickey Mantle rookie cards left? Probably not: Most wound up clipped to bicycle spokes.

172

Shares of Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett’s fabled money-management prowess has launched the stock of Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company, to $630,289 per share, and the company’s annual meeting has been described as “Woodstock for Capitalists.” Buffett doesn’t give investment tips, but you’ll probably get plenty of Dilly Bars and Coca-Cola since Berkshire owns Dairy Queen and a big chunk of Coke.

3,204

Lamborghini Huracán STOs

The Lambo is one of the fastest and priciest cars on the street. Each one costs $340,190, and you could buy more than 3,000 of them with your winnings. If you wanted, you could drive a new one every day for nearly nine years.

10,900

Around-the-world cruises

If you’ve got $1.09 billion, you can hit the road in style. At $100,000 a pop, you could stay afloat a long time.

482,087

Ounces of gold

Want to show off your riches? What better way to say “I’m loaded” than gold? At $2,261 an ounce, you could buy 482,087 ounces of gold. Better have a sturdy floor beneath them: That’s more than 30,000 pounds of gold.

12,681,791

Barrels of oil

Worried about having enough oil for that Lamborghini? Fear not. A barrel of oil recently cost $85.95, according to the Energy Information Administration. Your $1.09 billion could buy 12.6 million barrels of West Texas Intermediate Crude. If you decided to buy gas at the national average price of $3.55 a gallon, you’d be sitting on a lake of more than 307 million gallons of regular.

879,000,000

Boxes of Kraft Original Macaroni & Cheese

All that worrying about what to buy calls for comfort food, and what better comfort food than mac and cheese? Walmart recently advertised a box of cheesy goodness for $1.24. And you won’t have to eat alone. That’s enough mac and cheese to give 105 boxes to everyone in New York City (population 8,335,897).

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John Waggoner is a contributing writer of all things financial for AARP, from budgeting and taxes to retirement planning and Social Security. Previously, he was a reporter for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and USA Today and has written books on investing and the 2008 financial crisis. Waggoner’s USA Today investing column ran in dozens of newspapers for 25 years.

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Here’s What You Could Buy With the Powerball Jackpot

$1.﻿0﻿9 billion prize could take﻿ a very long time to spend — or not

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