Different. EB-5 capital is invested, at risk, and may be returned; the Gold Card gift is given away and never returned. A comparison of headline figures ignores refund rights, family totals, tax treatment and the fact that one is a commercial decision and the other is not.
How to compare them honestly
Put the two on separate ledgers and compare outcomes, not prices. Hypothetical example: a Lévis technology-company founder with proceeds from selling her shares sees an US$800,000 EB-5 project and the individual Gold Card gift as roughly comparable sums. On the EB-5 side, the capital may be repaid if the project succeeds, may be lost if it fails, and is accompanied by project fees, counsel across three stages and a job-creation dependency.
On the Gold Card side, the gift is gone by design, the processing fee is nonrefundable, each family member adds a fee and a gift, and there is no project risk. The tax treatment of a large gift by a Canadian resident and of a future U.S. tax residency should be obtained in writing before either path is chosen.
Neither route carries a guarantee of approval. What a family is buying differs, so the price comparison alone answers nothing.