The most expensive thing in the world as of 2025 is the International Space Station (ISS), which has an estimated development and construction cost of about $150 billion. It is a massive scientific laboratory orbiting Earth, built through collaboration among 15 nations, and is considered the most costly object ever created due to its complex engineering and international cooperation.
Other notably expensive items include:
- The Three Gorges Dam in China, costing around $37 billion.
- The James Webb Space Telescope valued at about $10 billion.
- The Large Hadron Collider built for $9 billion.
- The "History Supreme" yacht, reported to cost $4.8 billion.
- The most expensive artwork sold, Leonardo da Vinci’s "Salvator Mundi," at $450.3 million.
- The Graff Diamonds "Hallucination" watch priced at $55 million.
Among luxury items on marketplaces like Amazon, the most expensive item is a Silver Morgan Dollar (MS-65 grade) priced at $288,000.
Thus, the International Space Station is the single most expensive thing worldwide, far surpassing any luxury item or infrastructure in cost.
