Fewer natural diamonds are being sold, and De Beers lost another $511 million in 2025.
Will the diamond crisis end? The signs are not encouraging. De Beers, the company most closely tied to the diamond market, has been in serious trouble for years. Anglo American, the group that owns 85% of De Beers (the rest is held by the Botswana government), has put it up for sale: the strategy of reducing gem production by 12% in 2025, in an attempt to support prices, has not worked, and last year it suffered a loss of $511 million, more than 20 times the negative result for 2024. This is why Anglo American has decided to halve De Beers’s book value with a $2.3 billion write-down. This is a sign that the company expects 2026 to be no walk in the park either. Anglo, among other things, wrote down De Beers’s value by $2.9 billion a year ago and $1.6 billion in 2024.
The reasons for the diamond market crisis are linked to continued weak demand. Even a market like China is demanding less. This is also because jewelry stores are flooded with lab-created diamonds, indistinguishable to the human eye but with lower prices. This makes it often difficult to convince those without a deep bank account to buy a diamond mined from the earth rather than a synthetic gem. Furthermore, the tariffs introduced by the US administration have contributed to the confusion: those against India, where most rough diamond cutting activities are concentrated, have dismayed buyers and impacted prices. Added to this is the development of new mines in Angola.
