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The day in June 2024 when Nvidia's value passed three trillion dollars and, within the fortnight, made it the most valuable company in the world ahead of Microsoft and Apple. The number was quoted, charted and set beside the GDP of nations until it was retired in July 2025 by the four-trillion version, which got less attention because people had stopped being surprised.

The October 2024 round in which OpenAI raised $6.6bn at a reported valuation of $157bn, then the largest venture round on record, led by Thrive Capital with Microsoft, Nvidia and SoftBank among the names. Reported alongside a request that investors not back rival labs, which the internet filed under 'exclusive', and retired within six months by a round six times the size.

The flashing banner that announced you had won — 'You are the 1,000,000th visitor! Click here!' — as the early web's lie, and the record's entry for the advert that every visitor was the millionth to see. Punching the monkey was its sibling.

The round announced on 31 March 2025 in which OpenAI raised up to $40bn led by SoftBank at a reported valuation of $300bn, with a portion conditional on the company's restructuring, and the internet did the arithmetic on how many companies in the world were worth less than the raise. A secondary sale reported later in 2025 put the valuation at $500bn, which made the March figure look like an early price.

A falsetto hook that was the sound of spring 2024 on TikTok — a car, a sunset, the drop — before the song existed in full, and the record's entry for the hit that was a snippet first and a track second.

The figure Sam Altman gave in a June 2025 podcast interview when describing Meta's attempts to hire OpenAI staff: signing bonuses of $100m and more, which he said none of his best people had accepted. Meta disputed the framing and reports of larger packages for other hires followed. The number became the era's standard unit of researcher value, quoted by people who earned in a lifetime what the offer paid on signing.

The day Elon Musk became the first US dollar trillionaire, 12 June 2026, on the back of the SpaceX initial public offering, and the internet's response to a number it had no everyday word for. Every calculator post, every 'you could buy X' thread, every joke about a thirteenth digit. The record's entry for a new order of magnitude.

Persistent, polite requests for evidence intended to exhaust rather than learn. Named for a cartoon sea lion, and the cartoon is still the clearest definition.