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De Beers built the most powerful monopoly in modern history — not with guns or governments, but with a story. For over a century, one company controlled 90% of the world's diamond supply, convinced billions of people that a common stone was rare, invented the diamond engagement ring tradition, and made "A Diamond Is Forever" the slogan of the twentieth century. But today, that empire is collapsing. Anglo American has written down De Beers by $6.8 billion in just three years. Lab-grown diamonds now make up over 45% of U.S. engagement ring sales. And the company that manufactured scarcity is being made obsolete by a furnace.
In this video, we trace the full story — from a boy finding a pebble on a South African riverbank in 1866, to Cecil Rhodes' ruthless consolidation of the Kimberley mines, to Ernest Oppenheimer's Central Selling Organisation cartel, to the greatest advertising campaign ever run, to the blood diamonds crisis, and finally to the lab-grown revolution that is dismantling everything De Beers spent a century building.
This is the story of how one company rewired human culture — and what happens when the myth finally breaks.
Sources:
• Anglo American Annual Financial Reports (2023, 2024, 2025)
• JCK Online — "Anglo American Writes Down De Beers' Value to $2.3 Billion" (February 2026)
• JCK Online — "Anglo American Writes Down De Beers' Value by $2.9 Billion" (February 2025)
• JCK Online — "Anglo American Writes Down De Beers' Value by $1.6 Billion" (February 2024)
• Edahn Golan Diamond Research — Lab-Grown Diamond Wholesale Price Data
• NBC News — "Diamond industry 'in trouble' as lab-grown gemstones tank prices further"
• ICIJ — "Conflict Diamonds Are Forever"
• VOA News — "Botswana's Longtime Diamond Deal With De Beers Under Threat"
• Advertising Age — "Slogan of the Century" (1999)
• N.W. Ayer & Son Agency Records — De Beers Campaign Archives
• Encyclopedia.com — "De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited"
• South African History Online — "Sir Ernest Oppenheimer"
• Nasdaq — "Anglo Takes Third De Beers Writedown in Three Years"
• Ecofinagency — "Anglo American Nears De Beers Sale After Two Years of Uncertainty"
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