The highly anticipated annual Forbes billionaires list 2022 is out! For several reasons such as war, pandemic and sluggish market hits, there has been a reshuffle in the world’s billionaires this year. There are 2,668 of them on Forbes’ 36th-annual ranking of the planet’s richest people—87 fewer than a year ago. They’re worth a collective $12.7 trillion, $400 billion less than in 2021. The most dramatic drops have occurred in Russia, where there are 34 fewer billionaires than last year following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and China, where a government crackdown on tech companies has led to 87 fewer Chinese billionaires on the list.
Still, Forbes found more than 1,000 billionaires who are richer than they were a year ago. And 236 newcomers have become billionaires over the past year—including the first ever from Barbados, Bulgaria, Estonia and Uruguay.
Although we cannot go through the 2000+ billionaires in the world, we are going to talk about the ones in the entertainment industry.
Here are 5 entertainers/entrepreneurs that made the Forbes billionaires list 2022.
Rihanna.
Bad Gal Riri, pop star, business mogul, hot soon-to-be-mama and more, is among the first time billionaires. With this huge milestone achievement, Rihanna became the first billionaire of her home country of Barbados. Declared the world’s richest female musician, Rihanna has leveraged her Fenty Beauty cosmetics line and her Savage X Fenty lingerie business to a net worth of $1.7 billion. She ranked #1,729 on this year’s list.
Jay-Z
Hip-hop’s first billionaire, Jay-Z, comes in at #2,076. His $1.4 billion fortune includes his Roc Nation empire and the 2021 sales of his Armand de Brignac champagne to LVMH and TIDAL to Square, Inc.
Kanye West.
Ye comes in at #1,513 on the annual list, up more than 200 spots from his place last year. Kanye’s $2 billion fortune is credited largely to his lucrative Yeezy partnership with Adidas, as well as his 10-year deal with Gap.
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian, also makes the list at #1,645, jumping 1,000 spots from her 2021 position. Her $1.8 billion net worth is due in part to the success of her cosmetics and shapewear empire, SKIMS.
Tope Awotona
The Nigerian-born Tope Awotona, is the founder and chief executive of Calendly. Awotona is one of just two Black tech billionaires in the United States, along with David Steward, the 70-year-old founder of Missouri-based IT provider World Wide Technology. Tope comes in at #2076 on the Forbes billionaires list with a net worth of $1.4 billion.
Tyler Perry
Producer, actor, director and filmmaker Tyler Perry, returned to the Forbes billionaire’s list at #2,578 with a $1 billion net worth.
Forbes’ top 5 billionaires.
The top 5 includes Warren Buffet (No. 5, $118 billion), Bill Gates (No. 4, $129 billion), Bernard Arnault (No. 3, $158 billion), Jeff Bezos (No. 2, $171 billion), and Elon Musk, who tops the list for the first time with $219 billion.
America still leads the world, with 735 billionaires worth a collective $4.7 trillion, China (including Macau and Hong Kong) remains number two, with 607 billionaires worth a collective $2.3 trillion.
Source: FORBES.