<p>Recovery of precious metals from waste has high social and economic value, but in practice, recycling is often inefficient due to limits in technologies and materials. Here we show a group of materials—two-dimensional (2D) metallic 1 T/1 T′ phase transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs, MoS₂, WS₂, TaS₂, and TiS₂)—that allows for efficient, selective, and scalable extraction of valuable gold (Au) from leaching solutions of end-of-life electronics. The materials exhibit rapid kinetics, delivering an impressive 99.99% extraction efficiency of Au³⁺ in merely 0.25 min. Furthermore, they showcase strong selectivity for Au³⁺ adsorption, featuring a distribution coefficient (<i>K</i>_d) 5-6 orders of magnitude higher than that of other competitive cations (Cu²⁺, K⁺, Ni²⁺, Na⁺, Zn²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺). Amongst, TiS₂ exhibits an unprecedented extraction capacity of 9093 mg⋅g⁻¹ toward Au³⁺, which is approximately 1 order of magnitude higher than most other benchmark adsorbents (silver-organic frameworks). Importantly, through batch production of TiS₂ nanosheets (5 g) and subsequent membranes fabrication for gold extraction, we demonstrated 0.15 g gold (23.8 Karat) recovery by treating 30 discarded central processing units (CPUs). Our work provides a foundation for the efficient and selective recovery of high-value metals from waste, contributing to a sustainable and circular economy.</p>