Abstract Metal clusters stabilized by a surface ligand shell represent an interesting intermediate state of matter between molecular metal–ligand complexes and bulk metal. Such “metalloid” clusters are characterized by the balance between metal–metal bonds in the core and metal–ligand bonds at the exterior of the cluster. In previous studies, the electronic stability for the Al 50 Cp* 12 cluster was not fully understood. We show here that the known cluster Al 50 Cp* 12 can be considered as an analogue to a giant atom (“superatom”) with 138 sp electrons organized in concentric angular momentum shells up to L = 6 symmetry.