Slow reduction of Au ions in the presence of 4-(2-mercaptoethyl)benzoic acid (4-MEBA) gave Au76(4-MEBA)44 clusters that exhibited a strong (3 脳 105 M鈥? cm鈥?) near-infrared absorption band at 1340 nm. Powder X-ray diffraction studies indicated that the Au core has a one-dimensional fcc structure that is elongated along the {100} direction.