You Can Officially Buy a Diamond-Generating Machine on Alibaba

Any takers?

Lab Fad

Diamonds may be forever. But their market value? That might prove less eternal.

In a sign of the times spotted by Ars Technica, you can now buy a diamond-generating machine on the Chinese online marketplace Alibaba for the humble asking price of just $200,000.

It's as good an example as any that lab-grown hunks of pressurized carbon are easier to make than ever, as the mined-diamond industry continues to lose some of its shine — not to mention its market dominance.

The machine, which originates in China — as most of these do — uses what's known as the high pressure and high temperature process, or HPHT, which essentially mimics the extreme conditions that lead to natural diamond formation deep in the Earth.

But to produce diamonds more efficiently, you're gonna wanna shell out at least twice that amount for a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) machine. This gizmo works by placing a thin diamond "seed" into a vacuum chamber, in which carbon-rich gasses are heated into plasma, leaving pure carbon atoms that gradually accumulate around it.

Ars found a CVD machine that sells for a bargain price $450,000 — so, time to pool some money together with your friends?

In the Rough

But if you think using these things will be as easy as exploiting a duplication glitch in a video game, think again. As Ars notes, performing either method of diamond-growing takes a lot of expertise, not to mention significant upfront costs beyond what you spend on the machine itself.

Both machines will require diamond seeds that you'll probably have to buy in bulk (which, in case you were wondering, are also available on Alibaba). For the CVD process, you'd also need to buy the carbon rich gasses that break down into pure carbon, like methane, according to Ars. The HPHT process, on the other hand, will require graphite to provide the carbon, plus metals like iron and nickel to serve as catalysts.

Overall, though, this is still considered cheaper — and in many cases more ethical, in terms of the environmental and human toll — than mining diamonds. And the expenses involved are going down, too. In 2008, producing a CVD diamond cost $4,000 per carat. Today, that cost is estimated to be just $300 to $500.

Meanwhile, the mined-diamond industry is in a bit of a downward spiral. Prices for the natural gemstones have fallen 5.7 percent this year, and 30 percent from their all-time high in 2022. Lab-grown diamonds continue to grow in popularity, by contrast, with their market share growing up to 20 percent annually. Maybe the time is ripe to buy one of those diamond-generating machines after all.

More on diamonds: The Diamond Industry Is Withering as Beautiful Lab-Grown Diamonds Drive Down Prices