Reminds me of when I saw the customs declaration they had to make for the Troll oil platform[1]. It was "a thing" made here in the country, and it was being transported out of the country, so of course they had to customs declare it...

The declaration essentially said "one oil platform, unpackaged".

There was a suitable tariff code for it, but the value of it was so great the electronic customs declaration system couldn't handle all the digits.

Instead they had to write the value as a free-text comment.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_A_platform

It's not wholly clear that aircraft carriers etc. should count as machines. What if we limit the definition to "something used to make other things"?

Most gigantic blast furnaces, or hydraulic instruments on record if you correct for inflation? Though, most things like these made little sense economically even back in the days they were built.

Like what?

There are plenty aircraft models like B-2 Spirit, F-22 Raptor etc. that cost above $200 million.

The next Air Force One supposedly costs 4 billion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_One#VC-25B .

B2 spirit costs more than its weight in gold, clocking in at close to a billion

3.17 billion in 2019 dollars, or 1.11 if you exclude the sunk costs.

That is absolutely incredible.

Fighter jets, bombers, few missile systems, air defence systems, subs, and surface military ships... the list would be long.

Do aircraft carriers count in this context? They’re reasonably expensive to produce.

> reasonably expensive

The USS Ford is said to cost around 13 billions. I wouldn't call that "reasonable" :)

https://usadefensenews.com/2020/11/13/meet-the-us-navys-13-b...

Haha, I know - I should have added a wink emoji after that statement.

Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers are being built at 13 billion a piece: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_R._Ford-class_aircraft_...