In October 2023, Taylor Swift accomplished a feat no other musician had before: she became a billionaire primarily off of earnings from her music and performances. Three months later, Forbes named television tycoon Dick Wolf a billionaire, too, thanks to his estimated $1.9 billion (pretax) career earnings from producing shows like Law & Order and FBI.
The two entertainers bring even more star power to the Forbes World’s Billionaires list, which has seen an explosion in celebrity billionaires in recent years. Ten of the 14 A-listers on the ranking have become billionaires in the past four years, spurred by entertainers capitalizing on their brand and fame.
Most on this list have made their billions from their own entrepreneurship and ventures outside of their claim to fame. Pop star Rihanna, for example, built her fortune mainly from her stake in two billion-dollar companies, makeup brand Fenty Beauty, a joint venture with luxury giant LVMH, and lingerie maker Savage X Fenty. Jay-Z became hip hop’s first billionaire thanks to two alcohol companies, D’Usse Cognac and Armand de Brignac Champagne. He sold a 50% stake in the latter to LVMH, and he also has stakes in Uber and Block, among other investments. Michael Jordan earned less than $100 million from his basketball career, but pocketed big bucks from Nike. Jordan had his biggest score in August, when he sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets at a sky-high $3 billion valuation.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/devinseanmartin/2024/04/02/the-worlds-celebrity-billionaires-2024-taylor-swift-kim-kardashian-oprah/?sh=32680c87276b
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