De Beers is pulling the plug on Lightbox, its lab-grown diamond jewellery brand launched in 2018. The move signals a decisive pivot: the century-old diamond giant is doubling down on its natural diamond business after a years-long experiment with synthetics.
The company confirmed it is in talks to sell off Lightbox’s remaining assets, including unsold inventory, as part of the wind-down. While Lightbox exits the scene, Element Six — the De Beers subsidiary that manufactured the lab-grown stones — will now concentrate on using synthetic diamonds for industrial tech and research applications rather than jewellery.
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Lightbox was introduced as a disruptive play, offering lab-created gems at transparent, lower price points. The brand consistently drew a clear line between lab-grown and mined diamonds, positioning them as fundamentally different in both character and value. But as prices of lab-grown jewellery continued to slide, De Beers appears to have seen diminishing returns in the category.
The closure lines up with De Beers’ broader “Origins Strategy,” unveiled in May 2024, which calls for sharpening focus on core operations, cutting complexity, and investing in higher-margin areas — particularly marketing that drives demand for natural diamonds.
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“As we prepare for life as a standalone entity, our goal is to trim the excess and focus our energy where it matters most,” said Al Cook, De Beers’ CEO. “Lab-grown diamonds have steadily lost value in the jewellery market, and that drop only reinforces the unique and lasting appeal of natural stones.”
Cook also noted that while Lightbox helped clarify how different lab-grown and natural diamonds really are — especially in terms of long-term value — it’s time for De Beers to move on and reinvest in its original strength: the allure and rarity of earth-mined diamonds.
