The Powerball drawing set for Wednesday, Dec. 24, is currently the fourth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever at $1.7 billion.
Here’s a look at the latest Powerball jackpot and some items you can win if you are the lucky person with the winning ticket.
The Powerball Jackpot: At $1.7 billion, the current Powerball drawing is the fourth-largest U.S. jackpot in history and the second-largest of 2025. The jackpot could grow to be the highest jackpot of 2025, and without a winner drawn on Wednesday, could quickly become the largest jackpot ever.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9 tickets.
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Lottery players can purchase tickets for $2 each in more than 40 U.S. states, choosing to pick their own numbers or receive a random selection. Five numbers between 1 and 69 are selected, along with a Powerball number 1 to 26. To win the Powerball, a player has to match all six balls in the drawing.
The drawing takes place around 10:59 p.m. ET on Mondays, Wednesday and Saturdays. If no ticket matches all six numbers, the jackpot increases for the next drawing.
Lottery Winnings: Winners of large jackpots can receive a lump-sum cash payment or be paid the full amount over 29 years in 30 payments. One payment is made upfront and additional payments each year go up by 5% to fight inflation.
The cash payout is lower than the full payout over 29 years. The current cash payout listed on the Powerball website is $781.3 million.
A winner will have to pay federal taxes on the winnings and will be responsible for state taxes depending on where they reside.
The IRS takes a 24% withholding on winnings over $5,000. This means that the cash payout for Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot would be $593.8 million based on a lump sum cash option after the 24% federal taxes are taken out.
The winner could choose to save the money, invest it, or spend it on various items.
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Here’s a look at 10 items that could be considered.
1. S&P 500: If a winner decides to invest the money, they could consider investing in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), which tracks the broad-based S&P 500 Index. The $593.8 million could purchase 863,583.48 shares of SPY with the winnings. The S&P 500 averaged annual returns of 10% over the last 30 years, which would be a better return than the 5% return on choosing the 29 years of payouts.
2. Cryptocurrency: A potential investment for the winner could be to put the money in cryptocurrency, which is often more volatile than the stock market. The winnings could be split between three popular cryptocurrencies of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE)and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). The winnings would turn into 2,251.82 BTC, 1,524,910,118.10 DOGE and 67,191.25 ETH based on prices at the time of writing.
3. Investing with the Oracle of Omaha: Legendary investor Warren Buffett has been one of the top stock pickers of the last 50 years. While Buffett would tell the winner to put their money into bonds or index funds to preserve wealth, the winner could buy 1,188,503.26 B shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK)(NYSE:BRK). Of course, Buffett is stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, which may change the future returns.
4. Nvidia Stock: One of the top-performing stocks of the last 10 years is NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), which is currently the most valuable company in the world, valued at more than $4.5 trillion. Nvidia could remain a market leader for years to come, making it a potential investment idea for someone over the next 29 years. The $593.8 million could purchase 3,151,637.39 shares of Nvidia based on current prices.
5. Magnificent 7 Stocks: One of the popular investment themes in recent years has been buying shares of the Magnificent Seven stocks. The seven components of the popular index are Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) , Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Nvidia and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Here’s a look at how many shares of each the winnings could buy, when split equally seven ways to $84,828,571.43:
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AAPL: 312,122.20 shares
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AMZN: 366,113.82shares
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GOOGL: 269,759.50 shares
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META: 127,761.57 shares
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MSFT: 174,271.86 shares
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NVDA: 450,233.91 shares
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TSLA: 175,617.60 shares
Or an investor could put the lottery winnings into the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (BATS:MAGS), which tracks the seven stocks.
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6. Tesla Vehicles: Vehicles from the EV leader are popular with many investors and could be a purchase for a lottery winner looking to flex their winnings in the form of a massive collection and to give away vehicles to family members and friends. The Model Y has a starting price of around $39,990. This means the lottery winner could purchase 14,848 Model Y vehicles, enough to keep and give away.
7. Real Estate: Another popular investing option for lottery winnings could be real estate. The average home price in the U.S. is $359,241 according to Zillow Group. The winnings could buy 1,652 average-priced homes in the U.S. The winner could hold the homes to gain value over the years or choose to rent them out. Benzinga has a guide on how non-lottery winners can invest in real estate here.
8. Sports Teams: For the ultra-wealthy, buying a professional sports team has been a way to preserve and gain wealth. The after-tax lottery winnings would not be enough to purchase a team in the MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL. The winner could look to buy a minority stake in a team and gain wealth over time or could dip their toes into ownership in soccer with an MLS team. The New York Red Bulls, Nashville SC, Houston Dynamo FC, FC Dallas, San Jose Earthquakes, New England Revolution, Chicago Fire FC, Real Salt Lake, Orlando City SC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, CF Montreal and Colorado Rapids are all listed with team valuations under $593.8 million by Forbes, with valuations ranging from $580 million down to $415 million.
9. Gold: Another popular investment option over the years has been to buy gold, which hit new all-time highs in 2025. The winner of the lottery, who chooses a cash lump sum, could buy 131,645.46 ounces of gold.
10. Superyacht: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is one of the wealthiest people in the world and had no problem shelling out $500 million for a superyacht. The billionaire also spends $25 million annually on the boat and its operation. The winner could buy a superyacht that isn’t quite as large or extravagant as the one owned by Bezos.
This article is not intended as investment advice.
This article was previously published by Benzinga and has been updated.
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This article Powerball Jackpot: $1.7 Billion Could Buy 131,645 Ounces of Gold, 3.15 Million Nvidia Shares And More — 10 After‑Tax Spending Ideas originally appeared on Benzinga.com
