The world’s gold sits mostly with private individuals and central banks, while the companies that mine it hold the least, just 2% of the world’s share. The video argues that if you want to understand how power moves, you follow the gold. Central banks are buying more of it than in decades, and wealthy families are tucking it away behind shell companies.
To make the numbers easy to picture, the video measures each group’s gold in Eiffel Towers. This article walks up that ladder, from miners at the bottom to private households near the top, and ends with a bonus owner buried far out of reach.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The owners of the world’s gold at a glance
- Mining companies (0:48)
- Gold exchange-traded funds (2:45)
- The industrial world (7:19)
- Central banks (9:04)
- Private individuals (10:52)
- Bonus: the Earth’s core
1. Mining companies
You would expect the people pulling gold out of the ground to be sitting on vaults stacked to the ceiling. They own the least, only 2% of the world’s share. Stack all of it next to the Eiffel Tower and it reaches about halfway up.
Miners sell what they dig up to fund operations, pay shareholders or reduce risk. Five companies dominate the industry: Newmont Corporation, Barrick Gold, AngloGold Ashanti, Polyus and Gold Fields. Most of the gold comes from Australia, Russia, South Africa, Indonesia and Canada, with Australia and Russia far ahead of the rest.
Selling fast is a matter of survival. Bringing a single mine online can cost more than $1 billion before an ounce is produced, and it takes 10 to 15 years from exploration to production. Prices swing so much in that time that many miners hedge, selling future gold at today’s prices. That gives them predictable cash flow, but if the gold price skyrockets they miss the profits.
Miners are not playing the long game, they are trying to stay in business.
2. Gold exchange-traded funds
Buy a share of a gold ETF such as SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) or iShares Gold Trust and it feels like owning gold. In practice you own a share in a fund that owns the gold, and the fund uses a custodian, usually a major bank, to hold it. Collectively these funds have amassed around 3,500 metric tons, more than the reserves of Switzerland, Japan or India. Next to the Eiffel Tower, that reaches about a third of the way.
The gold is real and sits in secured vaults in cities like London and New York. But you do not have a claim to a specific bar. After a geopolitical shock, a legal freeze or an institutional collapse, what you hold is a piece of paper that says you own exposure to gold. It is secure until it isn’t.
- People pour billions into these funds every year because gold works as a shock absorber when inflation spikes or stocks nosedive.
- Hedge funds, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds use ETFs as financial tools, entering or leaving multi-million dollar positions in seconds without moving a physical bar.
- Funds hold only around 2% of the total supply, yet their influence on price, perception and panic is far bigger.
They do not need to hoard gold to control it, they just need to move faster than everyone else.
3. The industrial world
Your phone holds about $1 to $2 of gold. Multiply that across billions of devices and the industrial world’s gold adds up to the equivalent of three Eiffel Towers. Most of it will never be recycled, because extracting it costs more than it is worth.
Around 12% of the world’s gold is used in industry, and unlike bullion or jewelry it does not circulate. It gets melted and fragmented into chips and circuits. There is no real alternative in tech: gold does not corrode, it conducts electricity better than copper and it reflects heat. Processors, medical implants and satellite systems all depend on those properties.
Apple, Samsung and Intel hold no gold reserves, but they buy it constantly. As technology advances and needs more gold, demand only grows. Tech giants keep none in vaults, yet they remove it from circulation for good.
4. Central banks
Central banks use gold as insurance, not income. It protects a country’s currency and economy, and it sits outside the reach of sanctions, so it cannot be frozen, hacked or blocked. If a currency collapses or debt spirals, gold is the last card they can play. They usually sell only when the economy is tanking, as Kazakhstan and the Philippines did in 2024.
Most of the time the metal stays in vaults under national buildings, guarded by armed forces. The United States owns the most by far, locked up in places like Fort Knox and the New York Federal Reserve, with more than twice as much as second-place Germany. Over the last two decades other countries have grown their stockpiles, with Poland and Turkey leading the charge. Experts believe China and Russia hold much more than they report.
Central banks are not the largest holders overall, but they are the most strategic. Their gold is about control and stability, not profit.
5. Private individuals
Almost half of all the gold above ground is privately owned: around 95,000 metric tons, about nine Eiffel Towers, in homes, safes, temples and secret storage. Some is bullion and investment-grade bars, but the largest chunk is jewelry, real 22 to 24 karat gold.
India is the largest private holder in the world. Indian households collectively own over 25,000 tons, more than the reserves of the United States, Germany and the IMF combined. There gold is generational insurance, a signal of status and a sacred object at weddings, births and religious ceremonies. At the top sit royal families with antique and ceremonial collections that have never been publicly appraised.
In China, private investors have doubled down on gold over the past decade as a silent hedge against inflation and tighter control over real estate and digital assets. It offers privacy, because there is no registry of who owns what gold. In India, China, Vietnam and Turkey, a bangle is a portable savings account and a necklace is a financial backup plan.
Nobody knows how much sits in private hands. It could be in the Rothschild castle in Switzerland, or in a palace of the Saudi royal family, or at Buckingham Palace. We will probably never know.
Gold is rare, it cannot be printed, and the video calls it the only asset with zero counterparty risk.
Bonus: the Earth’s core
Scientists estimate the Earth’s core holds millions of times more gold than has ever been mined, about 160 million Eiffel Towers. We will never get it. The core starts about 2,900 kilometers down, and the deepest hole ever dug, the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia, is less than 0.5% of the way there. The outer core is around 4,000°C (7,200°F), and the pressure would crush machines first.
Even if we could reach it, experts put the value at about $112 sextillion, and flooding the market with that supply would tank the value of all the gold we have. So there is no point.
Why the split matters now
Only about 200,000 metric tons of gold exist above ground, and it does not rust, corrode or decay. A coin buried 2,000 years ago can come out looking brand new. Every civilization, from the Pharaohs to the Aztecs to the Romans to modern central banks, has agreed on its worth. The World Gold Council estimates about 57,000 metric tons can still be mined, which at the current rate gives 20 years before peak gold, when mining becomes too difficult, expensive and dangerous.
The video points to what happened between 2000 and 2008. Gold had been dismissed in the 90s and crashed from $850 an ounce to $250. Then the dotcom bubble burst, the dollar weakened and the 2008 recession hit. Gold went from $270 an ounce in 2000 to $1,000 by the end of 2008, and at the time of writing it sat above $3,000. The closing question is what happens when the decline in supply is permanent.
FAQ
Who owns the most gold in the world?
Private individuals hold almost half of the above-ground gold, around 95,000 metric tons, much of it as jewelry. India is the largest private holder, with Indian households estimated to own over 25,000 tons.
Which country has the most gold reserves?
The United States owns the most by far, held in places like Fort Knox and the New York Federal Reserve. It has more than twice as much as Germany, the second-largest holder.
Do mining companies own much of the world’s gold?
No. Mining companies own the least, just 2% of the world’s share, because they sell the gold they mine to fund operations, pay shareholders or reduce risk.
Do you actually own gold when you buy a gold ETF?
Not directly. You own a share in a fund that owns the gold, held by a custodian, usually a major bank. You do not have a claim to a specific bar.
Why are central banks buying gold?
Central banks use gold as insurance for the currency and economy. It sits outside the reach of sanctions, so it cannot be frozen, hacked or blocked.
How much gold is left to mine?
The World Gold Council estimates about 57,000 metric tons can still be mined. At the current rate that gives roughly 20 years before peak gold.
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