The Mega Millions jackpot in context: That $1.6 billion could buy you a baseball team
Lottery buffs are looking at a victory so sweet they could buy a Major League Baseball team.
The Mega Millions jackpot for Tuesday's drawing hit $1.6 billion, and a single winner could take home a lump-sum payment of roughly $904 million after taxes. That means the largest jackpot in U.S. history is worth more than the Tampa Bay Rays, according to Forbes, which values the team at $900 million.
The Rays are expensive, but they aren't nearly as pricey as the New York Yankees, which Forbes estimates to be worth $4 billion. If someone were in the market for a team with a bit more championship history, the Boston Bruins are also worth about $890 million. Only four teams in the National Hockey League are worth more than the Bruins, in fact, so a Mega Millions winner could essentially take his or her pick of the league.
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Leonardo Da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" became the world's most expensive painting sold at auction after a bidder spent more than $450 million at Christie's in New York last year. That's just less than half the Mega Million lump jackpot. And while Leonardo's most famous work, "The Mona Lisa," hasn't been valued in decades, it was insured for $100 million in 1962 — about $820 million today when adjusted for inflation.
The Pink Star diamond, which sold at auction for $71 million, broke the record for the most expensive diamond sold at auction last year. A Mega Millions winner could buy 11 Pink Stars and still have more than $100 million left in the bank.
Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon Heavy costs about $90 million to launch. The lottery's current jackpot would allow a person to send the Falcon Heavy into space about 10 times.
That $904 million is also worth almost twice the gross domestic product of the British Virgin Islands. And more than the $770 million valuation of the popular internet clothing company Rent the Runway.
In one fell swoop, the lottery winner would surpass the individual net worth of celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Jay-Z. Jenner is on her way to becoming the country's youngest self-made billionaire with her cosmetics empire, but it has yet to exceed her $900 million value.
Jay-Z isn't a businessman. He's a business, man. The rap mogul has not only sold out stadiums across the world touring with his wife, Beyoncé, but he has also made serious investments across industries over the years, including a record label, a clothing brand and a music streaming service.
All of that leads Forbes to estimate Jay-Z's net worth at $900 million, without factoring in his wife's income. Forbes estimates that Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, is worth just shy of $150 billion.
One lucky ticket could skyrocket someone past all of those and so much more.
There was still no big winner as of Friday, and the jackpot would go even higher if no one matches all six winning numbers Tuesday night.
