“I’m not a businessman—I’m a business, man,” Jay-Z famously rapped more than a decade ago. It’s a lesson that NBA superstars are taking to heart as they recognize their ability to call the shots on and off the court. 



The biggest stars, including LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, have set up companies to manage the opportunities in media, marketing and investing that come along with being global icons.



The NBA’s top 10 earners will make an estimated $540 million this year from salaries, endorsements, appearances, royalties and media pacts. 



The tally is up more than $180 million for hoops’ top earners from five years ago. James is the NBA’s highest-paid player for the fifth-straight year, with $88.7 million, including $53 million off the court. (Kobe Bryant was the last active basketball player to outearn King James.)



James, Curry and Durant are among the rare breed of players who make more off the court than on it. Endorsements provide the bulk of the off-court earnings for the trio. Shoe deals are the driving force, but these stars are increasingly pushing their personal brands into other areas.



James took control of his own marketing in 2006 when he launched what is now LRMR Ventures. A Hollywood production company, SpringHill Entertainment, followed in 2008. 



It has created TV shows like The Wall and Survivor’s Remorse and is working on remakes of the films House Party and Space Jam. James expanded his business empire with his digital media firm Uninterrupted in 2015. It got a boost via a $15.8 million investment from Time Warner the same year.



James has moved past the traditional endorsement model in many cases. He eschewed a $15 million <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/04/26/lebron-james-walked-away-from-15-million-in-endorsement-money-from-mcdonalds/1" target="_blank">renewal of his endorsement deal</a> with McDonald’s to double down on Blaze Pizza, where he is an investor and franchisee. 



He teamed up last year with Cindy Crawford, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lindsey Vonn to <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/lebron-james-other-celebrities-team-up-to-start-wellness-brand-ladder-1543320001" target="_blank">launch Ladder</a>, a health and wellness company, selling protein powders to start. James’ net worth is an <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2018/11/20/how-lebron-james-built-a-net-worth-of-450-million/#ea330656cfaa" target="_blank">estimated $450 million</a>.



<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/" target="_blank">-Kurt Badenhausen</a>Forbes Staff

Los Angeles Lakers v Philadelphia 76ers

The NBA’s Highest-Paid Players 2019: LeBron James Leads With $89 Million

billionaires

Fewer Billionaires, Poorer Billionaires On African Continent In 2019

Big Bang Theory&nbsp;may be in its final season, but its stars are still making millions for now. Four of the top five highest-paid TV actors have the CBS hit comedy to thank for their monumental paydays, including top-ranked Jim Parsons, who pocketed $26.5 million pretax in the&nbsp;12 months preceding June 1, 2018.



Parsons claimed the top spot for the fourth year in a row, edging Johnny Galecki (No. 2, $25 million) with additional cash from endorsements and executive producing spinoff Young Sheldon. The pair&#8217;s Big Bang Theory co-stars, Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg, tie at No. 3 ($23.5 million) with fewer side projects to juice their main salaries.



 All four Big Bang Theory stars saw their paychecks drop from last year after the original cast opted to take a cut from an estimated $1 million an episode to $900,000 in an effort to boost Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch&#8217;s fee. But they still snag points of the show&#8217;s back-end, which adds an estimated seven figures a year for each. 



Rounding out the top five is&nbsp;NCIS&#8216;s Mark Harmon, who&nbsp;banks big bucks from the CBS police procedural. Like the&nbsp;Big Bang Theory&nbsp;cast, he has smartly negotiated a cut of the show&#8217;s profits.



Together, the world&#8217;s 10 highest-paid TV actors earned $181 million between June 1,&nbsp;2017, and June 1, 2018, down from $185 million in the same period last year.



New to the list is&nbsp;Andrew Lincoln from&nbsp;The Walking Dead, who&nbsp;joins the ranking for the first time thanks to his paycheck from his final season on the AMC show. Expect co-star Norman Reedus to replace him among TV&#8217;s top-earners next year since Lincoln bowed out — and Reedus reportedly negotiated a raise.



The only actor to drop off the ranking is Kevin Spacey, who was accused of several counts of sexual misconduct and was dropped from his role of Frank Underwood on&nbsp;House of Cards. (He&nbsp;has denied the allegations.) With no new episodes in our scoring period, the disgraced actor failed to make the cut.



METHODOLOGY



All earnings estimates are from June 1,&nbsp;2017, through June 1, 2018. Figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted. Earnings estimates are based on data from Nielsen, Box Office Mojo and IMDB, as well as interviews with industry insiders.



The World&#8217;s Highest-Paid Actors 2018



1. Jim Parsons



Earnings:&nbsp;$26.5 million



Primary Show:&nbsp;Big Bang Theory



2. Johnny Galecki



$25 million



Big Bang Theory



3. (tie) Simon Helberg



$23.5 million



Big Bang Theory



3. (tie) Kunal Nayyar



$23.5 million



Big Bang Theory



5. Mark Harmon



$19 million



NCIS



6. Ed O&#8217;Neill



$14 million



Modern Family



7. Eric Stonestreet



$13.5 million



Modern Family



8. Jesse Tyler Ferguson



$13 million



Modern Family



9. Ty Burrell



$12 million



Modern Family



10. Andrew Lincoln



$11 million



The Walking Dead



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/">-Natalie Robehmed</a>Forbes Staff

The 24th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards – Show

Highest-Paid TV Actors 2018: Jim Parsons Leads With $26.5 Million

As political and business leaders gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, a roster of the most sustainable companies is also enjoying a moment in the spotlight.



The list, the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.corporateknights.com/reports/2019-global-100/2019-global-100-results-15481152/" target="_blank">Global 100</a>, ranks large corporations across the globe on their performance reducing carbon and waste, their gender diversity among leadership, revenues derived from clean products, and overall sustainability.



 In its 15th year, the ranking is compiled by a Canada-based sustainability-focused financial information company and magazine,&nbsp;Corporate Knights,&nbsp;beginning with a list of about 7,500 companies, all of which generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue.



Ranking number one this year on the Global 100 is Chr. Hansen Holding, a Danish bioscience firm that derives over 80% of its revenue developing natural solutions for preserving foods like yogurt and milk, protecting crops using natural bacteria instead of pesticides, and alternatives to antibiotics for animals.



Corporate Knights&nbsp;cofounder and president Toby Heaps told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that Chr. Hansen’s first-place standing was a bit of a surprise and that the company, founded in 1874, is a relative unknown to many. “It’s not a consumer-facing company,” he says.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">But it probably impacts a lot of the calories of hundreds of millions of people every day and makes the food that they’re consuming safer.</blockquote>



Nearly 30% of the Danish billion-dollar-business’ board is made up of women, according to the&nbsp;Corporate Knights study, and its CEO salaries are about 24 times those of an average worker with the firm—a relatively low ratio for the ranking.



In second place on the roster is Kering SA, a French firm better known for the consumer-facing brands it owns: fashion houses Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen, among others. 



The brand has shown it takes sustainability seriously by sourcing more than 40% of its products from certified sustainable sources, says Heaps, and is always scanning for ways to improve that percentage.



<figure><iframe loading="lazy" width="100%" height="400" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRoV95MCM_NFEDWsG2V-Ep8nclsVQ-q7FTO19t24gYH8PlKE2kJ2JIVnKgMURIu_jgjV6vGiq6XCeDh/pubhtml?gid=0&amp;single=true&amp;widget=true&amp;headers=false"></iframe></figure>

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The Most Sustainable Companies In 2019

Companies that keep employees happy aren’t just helping their workers—they’re helping themselves, since satisfied&nbsp;workers are more productive. In fact, a mutual fund that invests in companies with positive workplace ratings, Parnassus Endeavor, has beaten the market handily over the past 10 years.



What are the organizations with the happiest employees? Careers site&nbsp;<a href="http://www.careerbliss.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CareerBliss</a>&nbsp;launched its eighth-annual list of the happiest companies in America. It surveyed tens of thousands of workers and asked them to rate their employers on ten key factors, such as their relationship with management, workplace environment, compensation, satisfaction with job function and growth opportunities.



To see the top 10 happiest companies to work for, open the gallery below. For the full list of 50, see the end of this article.



Keller Williams Realty takes the top spot. The Austin, Texas company has 175,000 agents across&nbsp;more than 900 metro areas and claims to be the world’s largest real estate franchise by agent count. A Keller Williams Realty employee wrote on CareerBliss.com, “One of the greatest benefits is how our company promotes from within. All employees are encouraged and supported to be in control of their growth and career paths.”



Sneaker king Nike ranks second. It remains one of the most valuable brands in the world, and it’s navigating a big transition as more consumers shop online. In June it announced its “NIKE Direct” initiative—the company is trying to sell more of its products directly to consumers through its website and own stores, rather than rely on traditional retailers like Foot Locker.



Adobe is the fourth happiest company, according to CareerBliss. The Silicon Valley tech giant invented PDFs and launched them 1993. It claims PDFs have led to a 91% reduction in environmental impact and 90% cost savings when compared with paper-based processes. And Adobe’s Photoshop software is used by 90% of creative professionals. “The atmosphere is highly collaborative and energizing. People have always been friendly and helpful; very professional,” wrote one employee on CareerBliss.com.



Pharmaceutical giant Amgen ranks fifth. Arthritis drug Enbrel is its top-selling product, bringing in nearly $6 billion in sales last year. “The work-life balance is great, fantastic daycare on campus, lots of smart co-workers,” wrote one CareerBliss reviewer. “Working for Amgen was very rewarding to see the positive impact we made in patients’ lives,” reported a West Coast employee.



Full List:&nbsp;The Happiest Companies to Work for in 2018



<ol><li>Keller Williams Realty</li><li>Nike</li><li>Total Quality Logistics</li><li>Adobe</li><li>Amgen</li><li>Chevron</li><li>Intuit</li><li>Bristol-Myers Squibb</li><li>PNC Financial Services Group</li><li>TruGreen</li><li>CIGNA</li><li>Starbucks</li><li>Apple</li><li>Quicken Loans</li><li>Leidos</li><li>Qualcomm</li><li>iGATE</li><li>The Vanguard Group</li><li>Citrix Systems</li><li>Kaiser Permanente</li><li>Chase</li><li>Pfizer</li><li>Fidelity Investments</li><li>American Income Life Insurance Company</li><li>Blue Cross Blue Shield Association</li><li>American Express</li><li>GE Capital</li><li>Merck</li><li>American Airlines</li><li>Microsoft</li><li>Cisco Systems</li><li>Nordstrom</li><li>Exxon Mobil</li><li>Alcatel-Lucent</li><li>CenturyLink</li><li>Bank of America</li><li>The Walt Disney Company</li><li>Wells Fargo</li><li>Oracle</li><li>Citigroup</li><li>Broadcom</li><li>Farmers Insurance Group of Companies</li><li>DirecTV</li><li>Dell</li><li>Symantec</li><li>Metropolitan Life Insurance Company</li><li>ABC News</li><li>CareFusion</li><li>Spectrum</li><li>Verizon Communications &#8211; Jeff Kauflin</li></ol>

nike-store

The Happiest Companies To Work For In 2018

Once again, Jerry Seinfeld is the King of Comedy.



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The&nbsp;Seinfeld&nbsp;creator earned $57.5 million in 12 months, before taxes and fees, claiming the top spot on our list of the world’s highest-paid comedians. He collected multimillion-dollar dividends from his 2017 Netflix deal and Hulu’s streaming rights to all nine seasons of&nbsp;Seinfeld. Offscreen, Seinfeld made more than $30 million from his first love, stand-up.



Since&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;started tracking the earnings of the highest-paid comedians in 2006, Seinfeld has topped the list every year with the exception of 2016, when he was dethroned by Kevin Hart.



Though Seinfeld is on top, Hart certainly gave him a run for his money. The pint-sized powerhouse ranks second with $57 million, only $500,000 behind Seinfeld. The Kevin Hart Irresponsible Tour, which was the biggest comedy tour of 2018, topped 1 million tickets sold and banked Hart more than $30 million. He also starred in the wildly successful&nbsp;Jumanji&nbsp;remake, which grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide. Hart was recently picked to host the 2019 Oscars, but he stepped down&nbsp;due to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kevin-hart-steps-down-as-oscars-host-1167336" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">backlash against his prior homophobic tweets.</a>



The world’s ten highest-paid comedians made a grand total of $292 million, before taxes and fees, from June 1, 2017, to June 1, 2018. This is a whopping $82.5 million lower than last year’s haul due to fewer Netflix deals. Many of this year’s funnymen—including Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock—saw their streaming earnings decrease from 2017.



Two individuals disappeared from our lineup this year: Amy Schumer and Louis C.K.&nbsp;In 2017, Schumer became the first woman to ever appear on the highest-paid comedians list thanks to touring and a lucrative Netflix special, but she did not meet this year’s $15 million cutoff. As for C.K., he made the comedians list and the ranking of the world’s highest-paid celebrities with $52 million last year. But after he<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/arts/television/louis-ck-statement.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;confirmed sexual misconduct allegations against him in November 2017</a>, Netflix canceled his second special and C.K. stopped performing until this past August when he made an unannounced appearance at the Comedy Cellar.



Gabriel Iglesias, who last made the list in 2015, returns with a career-best haul of $20.5 million, enough for sixth place. The comedian, affectionately known as “Fluffy,” made most of his millions from performing a stunning 136 gigs, but he also inked a three-project deal with Netflix last April for a multi-camera comedy series and two new stand-up specials. He might clinch a higher spot on next year’s list thanks to his Beyond the Fluffy world tour, which starts in February.



The one newcomer is a familiar face. British comedian Ricky Gervais, who claims fifth place with $25 million, made a killing on Humanity, his first stand-up tour in seven years. He received at least $15 million,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates, for his Netflix special of the same name.&nbsp;The Office&nbsp;co-creator has signed on for a second Netflix special that has yet to be filmed.



Without a doubt, Netflix has changed the comedy economy. Armed with an original programming budget as high as&nbsp;<a href="http://fortune.com/2018/07/08/netflix-original-programming-13-billion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$13 billion</a>, Netflix is able to outbid most other networks; the streaming service released nearly 100 stand-up specials this year&nbsp;alone.



That said, Netflix hasn’t cornered the comedy market yet. Jim Gaffigan (No. 8, $17.5 million) released his latest special,&nbsp;Noble Ape, direct to digital, bypassing Netflix, which released his previous two specials. Hart, who launched his own fledgling streaming service, Laugh Out Loud, believes&nbsp;Netflix isn’t his most important revenue stream.



“Nothing is ever going to beat touring. It’s an entity that I own and control,” Hart told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2018/02/16/how-kevin-hart-makes-deals-and-why-touring-is-still-his-best-bet/#44943c8b2216">Forbes.</a>&nbsp;“I would never turn my back on stand up; it opened up the doors I walk through now.”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/pictures/5c17ea2ea7ea4370591a9224/the-highest-paid-comedian/">Gallery: The Highest-Paid Comedians Of 201811 imagesView gallery&nbsp;</a>



METHODOLOGY



All earnings estimates are from June 1, 2017, through June 1, 2018. Figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted. Earnings estimates are based on data from Pollstar Pro as well as interviews with industry insiders.



The World’s&nbsp;Highest-Paid Comedians Of 2018



10. Sebastian Maniscalco



Earnings: $15 million



9. Jeff Dunham



Earnings: $16.5 million



8. Jim Gaffigan



Earnings: $17.5 million



7. Terry Fator



Earnings: $18 million



6. Gabriel Iglesias



Earnings: $20.5 million



5. Ricky Gervais



Earnings: $25 million



4. Chris Rock



Earnings: $30 million



3. Dave Chappelle



Earnings: $35 million



2. Kevin Hart



Earnings: $57 million



1. Jerry Seinfeld



Earnings: $57.5 million



<ul><li>Hayley Cuccinello and Madeline Berg</li></ul>

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The World’s Highest-Paid Comedians Of 2018

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The 10 Biggest CEO Departures Of 2018

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The 12 Biggest Career Crashes Of 2018

Shonda Rhimes may have defined Thursday night television, but she&#8217;s now dictating the medium&#8217;s future. When the&nbsp;Grey&#8217;s Anatomy&nbsp;creator signed a nine figure, four-year deal with Netflix last year, she cemented her place&nbsp;at the forefront of entertainment&#8217;s digital future-and pioneered Netflix&#8217;s handsome producer paydays.
Rhimes, who created and executive produced ABC hits including&nbsp;Scandaland&nbsp;How To Get Away with Murder, is now developing eight shows for the streaming service through her production outfit ShondaLand.
&#8220;We are powerful women and when we say we have power, what we are really saying is that we deserve to have power. We deserve whatever good thing it is that we are getting,&#8221; said&nbsp;Rhimes at&nbsp;Elle&nbsp;magazine’s 25th annual Women in Hollywood celebration.
<blockquote>Demanding what you deserve can feel like a radical act.</blockquote>
Worth an estimated $135 million, Rhimes is the wealthiest female showrunner&#8211;the person who oversees writing and production of each TV episode-in&nbsp;Hollywood. She has said that her deal, which&nbsp;reportedly&nbsp;includes a base salary of $150 million with incentives that could bump it much higher, is bigger than the $300 million secured by Ryan Murphy.
Rhimes is just one of the world&#8217;s most powerful women in media and entertainment effecting change and impacting her industry with groundbreaking deals and inclusive storytelling. Take Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who has&nbsp;helped pioneer&nbsp;Star Wars&#8216; most inclusive casting yet.&nbsp;Under Kennedy&#8217;s stewardship, Kelly Marie Tran became the first woman of color to have a lead role in the multi-billion dollar franchise, playing Rose Tico in 2017&#8217;s&nbsp;The Last Jedi.
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Across the lot, Dana Walden has seen her power grow in the studio landscape. Following Disney&#8217;s $71.3 billion acquisition of the majority of&nbsp;21st Century Fox, the former chair and CEO of Fox Television Group will also head up 20th Century Fox TV, ABC Studios, the Freeform network, ABC-owned TV stations, ABC Entertainment and several other divisions.
Walden believes more women need to be in decision-making roles at every level. &#8220;There must be women in the highest ranks of every organization, and meaningful female representation on every corporate board,&#8221; Walden&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2017/11/01/15-most-powerful-women-in-entertainment-and-media-2017-effecting-change-tackling-sexual-harassment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2017/11/01/15-most-powerful-women-in-entertainment-and-media-2017-effecting-change-tackling-sexual-harassment/">told Forbes last year</a>.
<blockquote>Our recruiting and our training has to be oriented to ensure that we’re identifying and nurturing future generations of female leaders.</blockquote>
Entertainment&#8217;s most powerful&nbsp;span Hollywood, music and publishing. As each segment continues to deal with the fallout of the #MeToo movement, women have taken action. Anna Wintour, who continues to control&nbsp;Vogue,&nbsp;suspended photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Testino amid sexual misconduct charges and set a code of conduct for models and photographers.
Wintour teamed up with music power woman Beyoncé for the September issue of&nbsp;Vogue; she was given creative control over her cover photo and leveraged that power to hire the first African American photographer to shoot the cover in the magazine&#8217;s&nbsp; 126-year history. Another first for Beyoncé: In 2018, she became the first black woman to headline Coachella.
Here&#8217;s the full list of Media and Entertainment power women:
1. Oprah Winfrey, Media mogul
2. Shari Redstone, Vice Chair, CBS &amp; Viacom
3. Bonnie Hammer, Chair, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment
4. Donna Langley,&nbsp; Chair, Universal Pictures
5. Anna Wintour, Artistic Director, Conde Nast
6. Beyoncé, Singer
7. Dana Walden, Chairman, Disney TV Studios and ABC Entertainment
8. Katharine Viner, Editor-in-Chief, Guardian
9. Taylor Swift, Singer
10. Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
11. Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm
12. Shonda Rhimes, Showrunner
13. Arianna Huffington, Founder &amp; CEO, Thrive Global
14. Serena Williams, Tennis player
15. Shobhana Bhartia, Chair, HT&nbsp;Media
16. Priyanka Chopra,&nbsp;Actress
&#8211;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Natalie Robehmed</a><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">:</a>&nbsp;I&#8217;m an associate editor at Forbes covering media and entertainment, with a focus on the movie business. For the magazine, I&#8217;ve written cover stories on&nbsp;
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READ MORE |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/01/09/chef-cooked-beyonce-paris/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Chef Who Cooked For Beyoncé In Paris</a>
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2018 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival – Weekend 1 – Day 2

From Beyonce To Shonda Rhimes, The Most Powerful Women In Entertainment 2018

The gap between the really rich and the merely rich continues to widen, as fortunes soar to new heights. A record 2,208 billionaires made Forbes’ 32 annual ranking of the world’s billionaires. Altogether they are worth a record $9.1 trillion, up 18% from a year ago. The 20 richest people on the planet are worth a staggering $1.2 trillion, a sum roughly equivalent to the annual economic output of Mexico. In aggregate, they may represent less than 1% of total billionaires but their riches amount to 13% of the total fortune of all billionaires worldwide.
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jeff Bezos</a> is the richest person on the planet and the first centi-billionaire atop our annual ranking. Shares of his e-commerce giant Amazon rose 59%  in 12 months, helping boost his fortune by $39.2 billion. It was the biggest one year gain since Forbes started tracking billionaires in 1987. He easily moved ahead of Microsoft cofounder <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Gates</a>, who ceded the top spot for only the sixth time since 1995.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/01/10/heres-jeff-bezos-not-truly-richest-person-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Here&#8217;s Why Jeff Bezos Is Not Truly The Richest Man In History</a>
France’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bernard Arnault</a> had the second best year after Bezos. Record results at his luxury goods empire LVMH and a deal to buy out nearly all of Christian Dior helped boost Arnault’s fortune by $30.5 billion. He is the richest European for the first time since 2012 and number four richest in the world.
Two tech entrepreneurs from mainland China climbed into the top 20 for the first time. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/ma-huateng/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ma Huateng</a> (also known as Pony Ma) is Asia’s wealthiest person, ranked number 17 in the world, thanks in part to his firm Tencent’s WeChat, a ubiquitous social-messaging app with nearly 1 billion active users. Tencent also has stakes in Tesla, Snapchat parent Snap and music-streaming service Spotify. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-ma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jack Ma</a>, the 20th richest person, is the chief of another e-commerce giant Alibaba, whose shares increased 76% in a year.
Forbes pinned down 259 newcomers who made their fortunes in everything from tech and aerospace to private aviation and wedding dresses. China has the most new faces with 89, while the U.S. is next with 18. That is helping close the gap between the two nations. Altogether the U.S. has more billionaires than any country in the world with 585, while greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) has 476.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/02/01/african-billionaire-fortunes-rise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: African Billionaire Fortunes Rise</a>
On this year&#8217;s list, the billionaires hail from 72 countries and territories, including the first ever from Hungary and <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2014/02/01/dealing-corruption-simple-just-say-no/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zimbabwe</a>. One country not represented: Saudi Arabia. Forbes chose to leave off all 10 Saudis given reports of asset seizures after the Saudi Crown Prince detained some 200 people, including some billionaires, some for as long as three months.
While the vast majority of the world’s billionaires added to their fortunes in the past 12 months, 16% had fortunes that slipped. One notable loser was President <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/donald-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>, whose fortune fell $400 million since March 2017 to a current $3.1 billion. He is now ranked 766 in the world, down from 544.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2018/03/06/donald-trump-drops-400-million-forbes-billionaires-list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Donald Trump Drops $400 Million On Forbes Billionaires List</a>
Go <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> for the full list of all the world&#8217;s billionaires.
Methodology
The Forbes World’s Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from February 9, 2018. Some people will become richer or poorer within weeks—even days—of publication. For example, Jeff Bezos’ net worth climbed more than $12 billion in the two weeks between our measuring date for stock prices and when this issue went to press. We list individuals rather than multigenerational families who share large fortunes, though we include wealth belonging to a billionaire’s spouse and children if that person is the founder of the fortune. In some cases we list siblings or couples together if the ownership breakdown among them isn’t clear, but here an estimated net worth of $1 billion per person is needed to make the cut. We value a variety of assets, including private companies, real estate, art, yachts and more. We don’t pretend to know each billionaire’s private balance sheet (though some provide it). When documentation isn’t supplied or available, we discount fortunes. For daily updates of net worths, go to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forbes.com/real-time-billionaires</a>. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Luisa Kroll</a>, FORBES STAFF

Forbes Billionaires 2018: Meet The Richest People On The Planet

Last June, when Jay-Z and Beyoncé welcomed twins to their family, they did what many couples do in the wake of a new arrival&#8211;move to a bigger home&#8211;on quite an epic scale. Over the next few months, they shelled out $26 million for an East Hampton mansion and scooped up an $88 million Bel Air estate, adding 21,000 square feet per newborn. That&#8217;s the sort of thing you can do when one partner is a pop demigod and the other is the richest rapper on the planet.
Jay-Z upped his net worth from $810 million to $900 million over the past year, seizing hip-hop&#8217;s cash crown for the first time since Forbes started counting back in 2011. The Brooklyn-born mogul&#8217;s jump is due mostly to the rising value of his interests in Armand de Brignac champagne and D&#8217;Ussé cognac, on top of nine-figure ownership stakes in his Roc Nation empire and Tidal streaming service.
&#8220;We always complain about, &#8216;We don&#8217;t own this, we don&#8217;t own that.&#8217; … Here he is, this man who owns that,&#8221; superproducer Swizz Beatz told me in an interview for my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop&#8217;s Multibillion-Dollar Rise</a>. &#8220;The sky is not the limit: it&#8217;s just a view.&#8221;
Jay-Z, Diddy and Dre are not only the wealthiest hip-hop acts on the planet, but the richest American musicians of any genre. Longtime Forbes Five champ Diddy ranks No. 2 this year despite increasing his fortune slightly in the past 12 months; tepid trends in the vodka and cable TV sectors have affected his interests in Ciroc and Revolt, but heady growth at DeLeón tequila, his joint venture with beverage giant Diageo&#8211;and massive annual earnings totals in recent years&#8211;have kept his net worth trending in the right direction.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/05/kendrick-lamar-conscious-capitalist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Kendrick Lamar: The Conscious Capitalist</a>
Dre ranks third with $770 million, creeping upward thanks to the market trends boosting his nine-figure windfall from Apple&#8217;s $3 billion buyout of Beats in 2014. The superproducer is also in line to receive a slug of Apple stock this summer worth well over $100 million; depending on the tech giant&#8217;s share price at the time, he could leapfrog Diddy and Jay-Z when that happens.
After the top three, there&#8217;s a long drop before the fourth and fifth names on the list: Drake and Eminem, tied at an even $100 million apiece. The youngest impresario of the bunch, 31-year-old Drake has earned more than $250 million since 2010, before taxes and spending; an equity stake in Virginia Black whiskey and pricey estates in Toronto, Canada, and Hidden Hills, California, pad his holdings. His inclusion on the Forbes Five represents yet another career goal achieved.
&#8220;If I&#8217;m not on your list this year, I&#8217;d be gravely disappointed,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2013/02/14/drake-making-the-forbes-list-is-my-objective-every-year/#a5e3a5b26c57" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Forbes back in 2013. &#8220;That&#8217;s pretty much my objective every year … other than making good music.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/10/13/dj-khaled-rolls-hip-hops-boldest-star-shows-off-major-keys/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How DJ Khaled Rolls: Hip-Hop&#8217;s Boldest Star Shows Off His Major Keys</a>
Eminem isn&#8217;t known as a businessman like some of the other names on this list, but he&#8217;s still the best-selling rapper of all time and moved more albums in the U.S. during the 2000s than any act in any genre. Fresh off new album Revival, he makes his Forbes Five debut as former listmember Birdman&#8211;Drake&#8217;s Cash Money Records boss&#8211;slips below the $100 million mark in the wake of some <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article190619084.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article190619084.html">apparent</a> liquidity issues.
To compile the Forbes Five rankings, we follow the same procedures used to calculate our <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list of the world&#8217;s billionaires</a> (our annual update arrives Tuesday): valuing major assets, poring over financial documents, and speaking with analysts, attorneys, managers, other industry players and, in some cases, the moguls themselves.
So who will be the first hip-hop star to reach the billion-dollar mark? Trends in the spirits world could continue to play a key role for Jay-Z and Diddy. After the furious rise of vodka in the first part of this decade, fueled largely by flavored variants like those of Ciroc, the market has shifted towards cognac, whiskey and tequila.
&#8220;D&#8217;Ussé fits right in there,&#8221; says Eric Schmidt, Director of Alcohol Research at Beverage Marketing Corporation. &#8220;I think DeLeón is poised for growth … it could one day be the next Patrón, but it&#8217;s a long road.&#8221;
Jay-Z, meanwhile, shouldn&#8217;t be slacking off anytime soon: though he and Beyoncé bought their East Hampton abode outright, according to public records, their $88 million Bel Air mansion comes with a $52.8 million mortgage. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

The Forbes Five: Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists 2018

In the world of cryptocurrency, where billion-dollar fortunes can be made overnight, speed is everything — and CZ is the fastest of them all. From closet-size offices in Tokyo — &#8220;I would touch four people if I turned around in a circle&#8221;— the 41-year-old Chinese-Canadian coder runs Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange that has gone from a standing start to the largest on the planet in just under 180 days. CZ (born Changpeng Zhao) cut his teeth making high-frequency trading systems for Wall Street&#8217;s flash boys, and he built Binance to be a Ferrari. His exchange can process a blazing 1. 4 million transactions a second and on a peak trading day in January processed 3.5 billion new orders, cancels and trades. Speculators (some 25% of them from the U.S.) use Binance to trade 120 different coins, generating $200 million in profits for CZ&#8217;s exchange last quarter. BNB, the virtual coin CZ created in August that gives holders a 50% discount on trading fees, has a market cap of $1.3 billion. His stake in Binance and his coins give CZ a personal fortune worth as much as $2 billion.
He is hardly alone in becoming insanely and instantly rich from crypto. Chris Larsen, a longtime tech exec known for cofounding a string of fintech apps, saw his net worth flirt with $20 billion at the height of cryptomania in early January, based on his ownership of 5.2 billion XRP, the tokens of Ripple, the company he founded. XRP has since crashed 65%, but Larsen still tops Forbes&#8217; first crypto rich list, our (necessarily inexact) accounting of the 20 wealthiest people in crypto.
There are now nearly 1,500 crypto-assets in existence, valued at an aggregate of $550 billion, up 31 times since the beginning of 2017. While the prices of individual cryptocoins continue to swing wildly — Bitcoin is down almost 50% from its peak — it&#8217;s clear that blockchain-based currency is here to stay and that these virtual assets have real, albeit volatile and speculative, value. Black-market transactions, tax avoidance by individuals and sanctions-dodging by countries like North Korea fuel part of the demand, but so does a widespread excitement over the technology and an ideological desire for money to be free from the whimsies of nation-states.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2017/09/04/bitcoin-blockchain-billions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Bitcoin, Blockchain And Billions</a>
The winners of this digital lottery differ from those in previous manias. The shadowy beginnings, at once anarchistic, utopian and libertarian, drew an odd lot of pioneers who ranged from anti-establishment cypherpunks and electricity-guzzling &#8220;miners&#8221; to prescient Silicon Valley financiers and a larger-than-usual assortment of the just plain lucky &#8220;hodlers&#8221; (the typo-inspired crypto jargon for &#8220;buy and hold&#8221; investors). As in any gold rush, selling the pans and pickaxes &#8211; in this case running exchanges &#8211; is proving a more reliable path to riches than speculation. And, of course, easy money — especially if it&#8217;s viewed as a bearer asset — attracts scam artists and thieves.
Banking heir Matthew Mellon, whose $2 million investment in <a href="https://ripple.com/xrp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">XRP</a> blossomed into some $1 billion, learned that firsthand in January. The morning after a big bash, the 54-year-old recent divorcé says he discovered four people rooting around his $150,000-a-month Los Angeles party pad. (He didn&#8217;t report it to the police.) The unwanted guests were probably after his XRP and they stole four laptops and two cellphones. They didn&#8217;t get Mellon&#8217;s crypto-fortune — anyone with enough assets to make our list long ago figured out how to secure it. (Sorry, thugs.) In Mellon&#8217;s case, the private keys are divided up and safely scattered in cold storage around the country in other people&#8217;s names. But the incident underscores the weirdness that separates cryptomania from bubbles past.
Identifying the biggest crypto winners and estimating the scale of their wealth is no simple task. The virtual currencies exist almost entirely outside the global financial system, and the newly minted crypto rich live in a strange milieu that blends paranoid secrecy with ostentatious display. Take CZ&#8217;s <a href="https://www.binance.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Binance</a> exchange. It has no real headquarters: Employees are scattered across several countries, and CZ himself seems to change locales the way others change clothes. &#8220;We don&#8217;t want to be in one place right now because of regulatory uncertainty,&#8221; says CZ. Last we heard, CZ and his trademark black hoodie had just popped up in Taiwan.
And CZ is downright normal by crypto-billionaire standards. Former child actor Brock Pierce (The Mighty Ducks, First Kid) dresses like a cut-rate Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean and is given to making grandiose statements from the balcony of his penthouse in Santa Monica, California. &#8220;This is an opportunity to be a trillionaire &#8211; someone who is positively impacting a trillion living things on this planet,&#8221; he tells Forbes. Pierce once raised $60 million from Goldman Sachs with the help of Stephen Bannon, President Trump&#8217;s former chief strategist, to fund a company that sold virtual swords, chain mail and horses to role-playing videogamers. He also once got into trouble with his partners in a 1990s-era dot-com start-up after they were accused, in civil lawsuits, of sexual abuse of underaged boys. (Pierce has always denied the accusations and was never charged; one of his business partners, however, pleaded guilty to transporting minors across state lines for the purpose of sex.)
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2017/09/04/emperors-new-coins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Emperor&#8217;s New Coins</a>
Pierce was early into the crypto game, first mining Bitcoin and then financing blockchain start-ups and investing in dozens of initial coin offerings. Although he publicly proclaims he is pledging a billion dollars to charity, he refuses to provide documentation that proves he has anywhere near that much money.
Given this opaqueness and crypto&#8217;s hyper-volatility, we are presenting our net-worth estimates in ranges. We based our numbers on estimated holdings of cryptocurrencies (a few provided proof), post-tax profits from trading crypto-assets and stakes in crypto-related businesses. We&#8217;ve also categorized our crypto rich list into five groups: idealists, builders, opportunists, infrastructure players and establishment investors. Many fit into more than one category.
It&#8217;s a near certainty that we&#8217;ve missed some people and that some of our estimates are wide of the mark. But this was equally true when we launched the first Forbes 400 list of America&#8217;s richest people in 1982. At the time, many people said we couldn&#8217;t — or shouldn&#8217;t — publish it. We did so anyway. And we firmly believe we made the world a better place by shining a light on the invisible rich. Just as crypto has evolved from the days of the Silk Road drug site and the Mt. Gox digital hijacking, fortunes of this magnitude should never be allowed to lurk in the shadows. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Jeff Kauflin</a>, FORBES STAFF
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/richest-in-cryptocurrency/#73d03dd11d49" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ THE FULL LIST OF THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN CRYPTOCURRENCY</a>

Forbes’ First List Of Cryptocurrency’s Richest People: Meet The Secretive Freaks, Geeks And Visionaries

African Billionaire Fortunes Rise

The Last Jedi grossed a staggering $450 million at the worldwide box office its opening weekend, but George Lucas won’t be cashing in—he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion in cash and stock after decades of lofty annual hauls from the Star Wars franchise he created. Yet the force is still strong with his bank account: Lucas’ fortune now stands at $5.5 billion, making him America’s wealthiest celebrity.
Billion-dollar exits and money-spewing assets are part of the territory in the upper reaches of our list. Steven Spielberg (No. 2, $3.6 billion) has been a director for half a century, but saved one of his biggest highlights for last year with the $3.8 billion sale of DreamWorks Animation, the studio he cofounded. Oprah Winfrey (No. 3, $2.8 billion) continues to build her fortune through the OWN network but banked the bulk of her bucks from her years as a talk show host.
&#8220;What I learned in all of those thousands of interviews is that there is a common denominator in our human experience,&#8221; she once <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiraforbes/2012/09/18/oprah-winfrey-talks-philanthropy-failure-and-what-every-guest-including-beyonce-asks-her/#1b314e486bc0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> FORBES. &#8220;Everybody wants to know: &#8216;Did you hear me, and did what I say matter?'&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/16/oprah-keeping-promise-made-mandela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Oprah Keeping The Promise Made To Mandela</a>
All in all, America’s 10 wealthiest celebrities boast a combined fortune of $18 billion, up 7.8% from last year’s $16.7 billion. To compile our list, we looked at each candidate’s entire empire. We valued private company stakes by speaking with an array of experts and by considering public competitors; for publicly-traded companies, we used stock prices as of December 15, 2017.
For entertainers without private companies, we based our estimates on net lifetime earnings after taxes. Real estate, art and other assets were also factored in where applicable. Eligibility was limited to American citizens who’ve gotten rich off their fame, rather than become famous for their wealth (sorry, <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/12/07/donald-trumps-real-estate-business-losing-one-important-tenants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>).
This list includes a much more diverse range of names than other wealth rankings like our flagship Forbes 400: though just one of America’s 10 wealthiest celebrities is a woman, six of the figures are people of color. The list members’ areas of expertise range from Hollywood to sports to magic, and all have found ways of monetizing their respective corners of the entertainment business.
Michael Jordan (No. 4, $1.4 billion) earned $94 million on the court during his career, but has made $1.4 billion elsewhere, most notably Nike, which generates some $3 billion annually from his Jordan brand; the superstar’s 90% stake in the Charlotte Hornets has grown fourfold in value since 2010. David Copperfield rounds out the top five with a fortune of $875 million, accumulated by playing upwards of 600 shows in Las Vegas annually; his collection of more than 650,000 magical artifacts is the world’s largest.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/12/14/25-highest-paid-athletes-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The 25 Highest-Paid Athletes Of All Time</a>
Hip-hop is especially well-represented thanks to Diddy (No. 6, $820 million), Jay-Z (No. 7, $810 million) and Dr. Dre ($740 million), all of whom are among the youngest names on the list. Though all three got their start as artists, their empires now revolve around non-musical ventures like Diddy’s Revolt cable channel, Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac champagne and Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones, sold to Apple for $3 billion in 2014 (for more, check out my upcoming book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Diddy-Jay-Z-Hip-Hops-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/0316316539/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3 Kings</a>).
&#8220;They said we couldn&#8217;t start businesses outside of hip-hop,&#8221; Kendrick Lamar <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2017/12/05/kendrick-lamar-conscious-capitalist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> FORBES earlier this year. &#8220;These are the three individuals that showed us [how].&#8221;
<h3>The 10 Richest Celebrities In America</h3>
<ol>
<li>George Lucas ($5.5 billion)</li>
<li>Steven Spielberg ($3.6 billion)</li>
<li>Oprah Winfrey ($2.8 billion)</li>
<li>Michael Jordan ($1.4 billion)</li>
<li>David Copperfield ($875 million)</li>
<li>Diddy ($820 million)</li>
<li>Jay-Z ($810 million)</li>
<li>Tiger Woods ($750 million)</li>
<li>Dr. Dre ($740 million)</li>
<li>James Patterson ($730 million)</li>
</ol>
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, FORBES STAFF

America’s Wealthiest Celebrities 2017: The Top 10 By Net Worth

The NBA is flush with cash right now thanks to its $24 billion TV deal with ESPN and TNT, as well as its global opportunities. Players are sharing in the riches, with 29 current NBAers in the middle of contracts worth at least $94 million in deals that range from three years in the case of LeBron James to five years for most of the 28 others, according to <a href="http://www.spotrac.com/nba/rankings/contract-value/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data from Spotrac</a>. The significance of $94 million: It is more than the career earnings from playing salary of the sport&#8217;s greatest player, Michael Jordan, who earned $93.8 million with the Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards.
But don&#8217;t shed a tear for MJ. Sure, he made more than $4 million during only two of his 15 seasons in the NBA (Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf also paid Jordan his $4 million salary during the full season he took off to play baseball). Yet Jordan elevated athlete endorsements to an entirely new level, which has continued long after he hung up his high-tops for good in 2003. The result: Jordan is the highest-paid athlete of all time at $1.85 billion in 2017 dollars (the tally is $1.5 billion in current dollars).
Jordan has partnered with dozens of brands since he turned pro in 1984, including Gatorade, Hanes, MCI, Oakley, Upper Deck, Wheaties and more. His biggest backer has always been Nike, which signed Jordan ahead of his rookie year to a five-year deal worth $2.5 million, plus royalties. The Jordan Brand exploded for Nike and is now a $3.1 billion global business with revenue up 13% over last year and $800 million from two years ago. Jordan&#8217;s estimated cut of the business is $140 million this year.
Jordan showed the path to a fortune built on endorsement earnings that has since been followed by Tiger Woods, who ranks second at $1.7 billion. Like Jordan, Woods reached the pinnacle of his sport while shying away from any controversy, making him a marketing darling for sponsors like Accenture, American Express, EA Sports, General Motors and Nike.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/08/15/serena-williams-heads-highest-paid-female-athletes-2017/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Serena Williams Heads The Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2017</a>
Woods banked $600 million (adjusted for inflation) between 2006 and 2010, with endorsements and appearance fees fueling most of the earnings. The image of Woods as the perfect pitchman came crashing down on a Thanksgiving night eight years ago, but he remains the top draw in golf when healthy. His earnings are off 68% from their peak but still rank among the highest in golf.
Forbes&#8216; earnings estimates include salaries, bonuses, prize money, endorsements and licensing, as well as fees from books, golf course designs and appearances. Earnings cover from the time the athletes turned pro through June 1, 2017, and include money earned after playing careers were over, as well as earnings by the estate in the case of Arnold Palmer. We do not include investment income, and we back-filled years where we did not publish earnings figures, such as prior to 1990 for Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. We adjusted all figures for inflation.
The 25 highest-paid athletes of all time played a mix of eight sports, with golf, basketball and boxing landing five entries each. The top 25 have earned a cumulative $19.4 billion since turning pro ($15.9 billion without adjusting for inflation).
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/06/09/ronaldo-lebron-top-worlds-highest-paid-athletes-2017/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Ronaldo, Le Bron Top World&#8217;s Highest-Paid Athletes Of 2017 </a>
From branding it like Beckham to the Golden Bear’s Midas touch, these sports legends are so money when it comes to career earnings and endorsement deals.
<h3>The Highest-Paid Athletes of All-Time</h3>
1. Michael Jordan
Career earnings: $1.85 billion (2017 dollars)
Jordan still maintains his longtime endorsement relationships with Gatorade, Hanes, Nike and Upper Deck, but the investment that made him a billionaire was the $175 million fire-sale price he got the Charlotte Bobcats (now the Hornets) for in 2010. Jordan bumped his Hornets stake to 90% in 2013, and the team is now worth $780 million.
2. Tiger Woods
<div id="attachment_34818" style="width: 415px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34818" class=" wp-image-34818" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Tiger-Woods-e1513240484211-300x180.jpg" alt="Tiger Woods" width="405" height="243" />Tiger Woods during the Hero World Challenge at Albany, Bahamas in Nassau, Bahamas. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)</div>
Career earnings: $1.7 billion
The 14-time major winner has played only 18 official PGA Tour events since the start of 2014 because of injuries (he&#8217;s missed the cut or withdrawn from half of them). Sponsors still see value in partnering with Woods, with TaylorMade, Bridgestone and Monster Energy the most recent additions to his endorsement portfolio.
3. Arnold Palmer
Career earnings: $1.4 billion
Palmer died in September 2016, but his estate still <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/10/30/how-arnold-palmer-still-earns-40-million-annually-after-his-death/#4e4005850ffa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banked $40 million</a> during the last 12 months. More than 400 stores sell Arnold Palmer-branded apparel in Asia, with plans to move into new markets like Thailand and Vietnam. His estate has agreements with 39 licensees. The partnership between IMG founder Mark McCormack and his first client, Palmer, revolutionized sports marketing.
4. Jack Nicklaus
Career earnings: $1.2 billion
Nicklaus&#8217; course design company is responsible for 410 courses in 41 countries, with the 18-time major winner involved in three-quarters of the projects. In addition to course design, the Nicklaus business empire includes real estate, wine, ice cream, drinkware, golf academies, lemonade and more.
5. Michael Schumacher
Career earnings: $1 billion
The health of Schumacher, 47, has been precarious since a 2013 skiing accident in the Alps left him in a coma. The F1 titan dominated his sport while racking up seven titles and is one of only six athletes to top the FORBES highest-paid athletes list since 1990.
6. Phil Mickelson
Career earnings: $815 million
Mickelson pitches for Amgen, ExxonMobil, KPMG, Rolex, Grayhawk and the Greenbrier, as well as two new partners in Intrepid Financial Partners and Workday. His $84 million in career prize money ranks second all-time. Coming in second to Tiger has been plenty lucrative for Lefty, who finally outearned his rival in 2015, for the first time since Woods turned pro in 1996.
7. (tie) Kobe Bryant
Career earnings: $800 million
Bryant&#8217;s earnings during his playing career were <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2015/11/30/kobe-bryant-will-retire-with-record-680-million-in-career-earnings/#3cfbd75c217c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tops all time among team athletes</a>, and he had the highest NBA salary the final six seasons of his career. The Black Mamba is attacking retirement the way he did opposing guards during his 20-year NBA career. He launched Kobe Inc. and a venture capital firm, Bryant Stibel, with $100 million in funding.
7. (tie) David Beckham
Career earnings: $800 million
Beckham&#8217;s most lucrative years have come in retirement thanks to royalty deals with Diageo, to launch a new single-grain Scotch whisky called Haig Club, and Global Brands Group, to create Beckham-branded consumer products. Beckham is inching closer to bringing an MLS expansion team to Miami, which he got the rights to at the bargain-basement price of $25 million.
9. Floyd Mayweather
<div id="attachment_32912" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32912" class=" wp-image-32912" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Mayweather-v-McGregor-e1500973503764-300x219.jpg" alt="Floyd Mayweather Jr. v Conor McGregor" width="400" height="292" />Dana White splits Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor apart during the World Press Tour at SSE Arena on July 14, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)</div>
Career earnings: $785 million
Our earnings figure for Mayweather does not include his monster payday for his August bout against Conor McGregor (our scoring period ended June 1). His McGregor paycheck makes Mayweather just the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/08/26/how-floyd-mayweather-became-boxings-1-billion-man/#76042d3f7d5a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sixth athlete ever</a> with earnings of $1 billion.
10. Shaquille O&#8217;Neal
Career earnings: $735 million
O&#8217;Neal sold a stake in the business of Shaq last year to Authentic Brands Group, which got the rights to roughly half of O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s future licensing and endorsement revenue in return for a lump sum payment. Shaq’s low-cost sneaker line has sold more than 120 million pairs during his career.
11. LeBron James
Career earnings: $730 million
The NBA&#8217;s top pitchman added Intel and Verizon this year to his endorsement portfolio, which already included Nike, Coca-Cola, Beats by Dre and Kia Motor. King James owns a stake in 17 Blaze Pizzas, the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/07/11/lebron-james-backed-blaze-pizza-is-fastest-growing-restaurant-chain-ever/#4ba2258152b2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fastest-growing food-service business</a> of all-time.
12. Cristiano Ronaldo
<div id="attachment_34819" style="width: 411px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34819" class=" wp-image-34819" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Cristiano-Ronaldo-e1513240861323-300x199.jpg" alt="Cristiano Ronaldo" width="401" height="266" />Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid during the La Liga match against Sevilla at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Power Sport Images/Getty Images)</div>
Career earnings: $725 million
Ronaldo is rising up the charts as the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/06/07/ronaldo-lebron-top-the-worlds-highest-paid-athletes-of-2017/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highest-paid athlete</a> in the world the past two years, including $93 million in the 12 months ending in June. His <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2016/11/07/worlds-highest-paid-athlete-cristiano-ronaldo-signs-new-real-madrid-contract/#7c9525b2688f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Real Madrid contract extension</a> will push the earnings for soccer&#8217;s reigning player of the year even higher.
13. Greg Norman
Career earnings: $705 million
Like Shaquille O&#8217;Neal and Muhammad Ali before him, Norman sold his future licensing rights to Authentic Brands Group in March. Norman&#8217;s company retains control of his real estate, investments and course design operations, but ABG will work on his other business interests in apparel, accessories, steak and wine.
14. Mike Tyson
Career earnings: $700 million
The youngest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing squandered $400 million in earnings (not adjusted for inflation) before filing for bankruptcy in 2003. Tyson has reinvented himself at 51 as an actor and with business partnerships around gaming, motorcycles and fitness centers.
15. Roger Federer
<div id="attachment_34820" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34820" class=" wp-image-34820" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Roger-Federer-e1513241162828-300x207.jpg" alt="Roger Federer" width="400" height="276" />Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates after beating Marin Cilic of Croatia during the ATP World Tour Finals at The O2 Arena, London. (Photo by Kieran Galvin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</div>
Career earnings: $675 million
Federer recently re-took the crown for highest career prize money on the ATP Tour with his resurgent year on the court in 2017. His $111.9 million tally surpasses the total of Novak Djokovic ($109.8 million), as well as that of Tiger Woods, who sits at $110 million in prize money on the PGA Tour.
16. Lionel Messi
Career earnings: $600 million
Messi has been at Barcelona since age 13, and his contract extension last month will keep him at Camp Nou through the 2020-21 season. The buyout clause for Barcelona&#8217;s all-time leading scorer doubled under the new deal to $835 million.
17. Alex Rodriguez
Career earnings: $575 million
A-Rod signed two of the three biggest contracts in the history of baseball during his 22-year career and was paid $20 million by the Yankees in 2017 despite retiring last year. He has been busy in retirement as a Fox Sports analyst and a host for an upcoming CNBC reality show, in addition to his high-profile relationship with Jennifer Lopez.
18. Jeff Gordon
Career earnings: $525 million
Gordon won 93 races during his Nascar career, the modern-day record. He owns a stake in Jimmie Johnson&#8217;s No. 48 car and could be in line for a larger ownership role at Hendrick Motorsports.
19. Oscar De La Hoya
Career earnings: $520 million
The Golden Boy&#8217;s 2007 fight with Floyd Mayweather was the biggest bout in pay-per-view history, with 2.5 million buys, until Mayweather faced Manny Pacquiao. De La Hoya earned a then-record $52 million because he served as the fight&#8217;s promoter through his company Golden Boy Promotions, which he founded in 2002.
20. Manny Pacquiao
Career earnings: $510 million
Pacquiao&#8217;s pay-per-view career includes 18.6 million buys and gross revenue of $1.2 billion. The Filipino senator lost to Australian Jeff Horn in his only 2017 bout. Pacquiao&#8217;s biggest career payday was his 2015 fight with Mayweather, for which he pocketed roughly $125 million.
21. Derek Jeter
Career earnings: $490 million
Jeter&#8217;s tenure as an MLB owner is off to a rocky start in South Florida. The 14-time All-Star put up only $25 million of the $1.2 billion price for the Miami Marlins, but Jeter is calling the shots as CEO of the team.
22. (tie) Peyton Manning
Career earnings: $480 million
The five-time MVP retired as the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards (71,490) and touchdowns (539) and was the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2016/03/07/peyton-manning-retires-with-record-400-million-in-career-earnings/#7c60b345488f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NFL record-holder for earnings</a> on and off the field. Manning remains a popular pitchman in retirement, shilling for Nationwide, DirecTV, Gatorade, Papa John&#8217;s and Otterbox. He also hosted the 2017 ESPYs.
22. (tie) Kevin Garnett
Career earnings: $480 million
Garnett earned an NBA-record $334 million in playing salary during his 22-year playing career with the Timberwolves, the Celtics and the Nets. His blockbuster six-year, $126 million contract as a 21-year-old in 1997 helped push NBA owners to lock out the players ahead of the 1998-99 season.
24. Evander Holyfield
Career earnings: $475 million
Holyfield&#8217;s career-high payday was $34 million, for his second fight versus Mike Tyson, which ended abruptly when Tyson was disqualified for biting off a chunk of Holyfield&#8217;s ear. Despite a quarter-century of boxing purses, Holyfield faced major financial issues with a foreclosure of his $10 million, 109-room Atlanta estate and lawsuits for unpaid child support.
25. Andre Agassi
Career earnings: $470 million
Agassi&#8217;s massive Nike endorsement deal earned him $140 million over 10 years, including the appreciation of the company stock he received in the pact.
&#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Kurt Badenhausen</a>, FORBES STAFF

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