It has been sixteen years since Bruno Mars and rapper Travie McCoy famously sang about their dreams of becoming billionaires and being featured on Forbes’ front cover. Although neither of these musicians has yet to attain this status, a growing number of their peers in the celebrity world are successfully featuring in Forbes’ 2026 Billionaires List of the richest people in the world.
As sportsmen and entertainers continue to negotiate higher salaries, endorsement deals, and establish their own businesses, many are now essentially entrepreneurs and not employees.
According to Forbes, there are currently 22 celebrity billionaires in 2026 with a combined wealth of 48.1 billion dollars. This is a significant increase from 18 celebrity billionaires in 2025 with a combined wealth of 39 billion dollars.
Some of the latest additions to Forbes’ 2026 Billionaires List include Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Roger Federer, Dr. Dre, and James Cameron. Other long-time members of this list include Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Oprah Winfrey, who first appeared in the 1990s and early 2000s. More recent additions to this list include Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, and Rihanna.
What is a “celebrity”? How to define this is a bit tricky. Forbes typically selects those who first became famous and then went on to amass huge fortunes. This would naturally include entertainers and sportsmen. It would not include those who became famous due to business or personal wealth, such as Donald Trump and Mark Cuban.
Below are the 22 celebrities that are rich enough to appear on Forbes’ 2026 Billionaires List of the richest people in the world, ordered according to their wealth.
#22. Dr. Dre
Net Worth: $1 billion | Age: 61 | Citizenship: United States
The legendary rapper and producer was instrumental in establishing the headphone company Beats Electronics and Beats Music, a music streaming service. In 2014, Dr. Dre and his fellow investors sold Beats Electronics and Beats Music to Apple for approximately $3 billion in cash and stock.
Dr. Dre is also credited with establishing the record label Aftermath Entertainment in 1996. After his exit from the pioneering hip-hop group N.W.A and Death Row Records, Dr. Dre was instrumental in launching the careers of prominent artists like Eminem, 50 Cent, and Kendrick Lamar.
#21. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
Net Worth: $1 billion | Age: 44 | Citizenship: United States
Beyoncé’s wealth is largely attributed to her nearly three-decade-long music career as a solo artist and as part of the girl group Destiny’s Child. Currently, she holds the record for winning the highest number of Grammy Awards with 35. In 2025, she won her first Album of the Year award. In 2023, she and her husband Jay-Z purchased a Malibu property for $200 million, making it the most expensive residential property ever purchased in California.
#20. Rihanna
Net Worth: $1 billion | Age: 38 | Citizenship: Barbados
While fans are still waiting for new music from her, it has been nearly a decade since Rihanna has come out with new music. However, her wealth does not come from her music but from her business ventures. Her most lucrative business is her makeup company, Fenty Beauty, which she co-owns with the luxury group LVMH. There are reports that the company has been looking to sell its stake in the company, and this deal could be valued between $1 billion and $2 billion.
#19. James Cameron
Net Worth: $1.1 billion | Age: 71 | Citizenship: Canada
James Cameron is the director of three of the four highest-grossing films of all time, including *Titanic*, *Avatar*, and *Avatar: The Way of Water*. He is ranked second behind fellow billionaire Steven Spielberg, who has made the most successful films of all time, earning nearly $9 billion worldwide. When *Avatar* earned nearly $3 billion at the box office, combined with revenue earned from DVDs and streaming, Cameron made about $1 billion.
#18. Roger Federer
Net Worth: $1.1 billion | Age: 44 | Citizenship: Switzerland
Federer has accomplished more than winning 20 Grand Slam tennis tournaments before retiring in 2022. He has also accumulated one of the most lucrative endorsement deals in the history of sports during his illustrious career. At his peak, he earned $100 million annually from endorsement deals with major brands such as Uniqlo, Rolex, and Mercedes-Benz. His best investment is an estimated 3% stake in Swiss athletic apparel maker On, whose shares went public in 2021 with a valuation of almost $15 billion.
#17. Jerry Seinfeld
Net Worth: $1.1 billion | Age: 71 | Citizenship: United States
Seinfeld continues to earn from his iconic 1990s television sitcom Seinfeld. He and his co-creator Larry David earn 15% of the profits from syndicating his popular television sitcom to local television stations. In 2019, Netflix acquired worldwide streaming rights to his sitcom as part of a $500 million-plus deal over five years.
#16. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Net Worth: $1.2 billion | Age: 78 | Citizenship: United States
The highest-paid actor in Hollywood, the former governor of California, has made about $500 million so far, before taxes and other charges, from his acting contracts and profit-sharing deals. Apart from acting, the former governor has greatly enhanced his wealth by investing in business ventures such as California real estate and other prominent global companies.
Among his most successful business ventures has been his minority stake in Dimensional Fund Advisors, a company founded by billionaire David Booth. At the time of his investment, the company had about $12 billion in assets under management, but today it has over $1 trillion.
#15. Bruce Springsteen
Net Worth: $1.2 billion | Age: 76 | Citizenship: United States
A Rock and Roll legend and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Springsteen has sold over 140 million records worldwide in five decades of recording and performing. A major financial milestone in his career was in 2021, when he sold his entire music catalog to Sony Music Entertainment for an upfront payment of $500 million. 350 million before taxes and other costs.
#14. LeBron James
Net Worth: $1.4 billion | Age: 41 | Citizenship: United States
LeBron James has made over $500 million in pre-tax salary from his NBA career with teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, and his current team, the Los Angeles Lakers. However, his off-court earnings are much higher. According to Forbes, LeBron has made over $1 billion in pre-tax income from his business deals and endorsement contracts with companies like PepsiCo, Nike, and Beats by Dre.
#13. Tyler Perry
Net Worth: $1.4 billion | Age: 56 | Citizenship: United States
Tyler Perry is a director, actor, producer, and writer known for producing the hit Madea series, which has grossed over $660 million worldwide. His wealth does not come from his share of the profit from the Madea series, but from all the content he has created since the early 1990s. The reason for Tyler’s wealth is that he owns all of the projects that he creates.
#12. Dick Wolf
Net Worth: $1.5 billion | Age: 79 | Citizenship: United States
Wolf is the creative force behind popular television franchises such as Law & Order, Chicago, and FBI. He has entered into a profit-sharing deal with Universal Television through his company Wolf Entertainment. In 2004, Wolf signed the deal, which enabled him to retain almost half of the profit that his television shows earn from syndication.
#11. Tiger Woods
Net Worth: $1.5 billion | Age: 50 | Citizenship: United States
Woods has accumulated approximately $1.9 billion before taxes throughout his professional golfing career, including a record $121 million from winnings on the PGA Tour. He would possibly have accumulated more than his current earnings had he not turned down a high nine-digit figure deal from LIV Golf, a rival tour, according to the former LIV Golf CEO, Greg Norman.
#10. Magic Johnson
Net Worth: $1.6 billion | Age: 66 | Citizenship: United States
Johnson accumulated approximately $40 million in salary during his active playing career, most of it with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s, and less than $4 million annually in endorsements. Today, Johnson has minority ownership stakes in several professional teams, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Commanders. The majority of his wealth comes from his majority stake in the life insurance company Equitrust, which has assets worth almost $34 billion and which Johnson purchased in 2015.
#9. Peter Jackson
Net Worth: $1.9 billion | Age: 64 | Citizenship: New Zealand
Peter is best known for his work in successful trilogies “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” series. Peter became a billionaire after selling his technology division of his visual effects company Wētā FX to Unity Software in 2021. He is also returning to his fantasy world that he has been associated with throughout his career. He is all set to produce an upcoming movie titled “The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.”
#8. Kim Kardashian
Net Worth: $1.9 billion | Age: 45 | Citizenship: United States
She is best known for her appearance in a successful reality television series “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” Her billionaire status is a result of her shapewear company “Skims,” which was valued at $5 billion in the latest funding round in 2025.
#7. Taylor Swift
Net Worth: $2 billion | Age: 36 | Citizenship: United States
Taylor Swift officially joined the billionaire club in 2023. Her joining of this club was largely influenced by the success of her concert tour and music library. She made nearly $1 billion from royalties and concerts. She also made nearly $900 million from her music library and $100 million from her real estate investments.
#6. Jay-Z
Net Worth: $2.8 billion | Age: 56 | Citizenship: United States
Jay-Z officially joined the billionaire club in 2019. He is considered the first billionaire from the hip-hop music genre. Jay-Z’s wealth has continued to grow over the years. Jay-Z has made his wealth from his successful business ventures in the liquor sector. In 2021, Jay-Z sold half of his champagne business, Armand de Brignac, commonly known as Ace of Spades, to LVMH. Jay-Z sold most of his cognac business, D’Usse, to Bacardi in 2023.
#5. Oprah Winfrey
Net Worth: $3.2 billion | Age: 72 | Citizenship: United States
Oprah Winfrey leveraged the success of her long-running talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which aired until 2011, into a vast business and media empire. She invested her show’s profits and those of movies like “The Color Purple,” “Beloved,” and “Selma,” all of which are produced under her company’s banner, into a vast property portfolio. Her assets include over a dozen properties and 2,100 acres of land in Hawaii.
#4. Vince McMahon
Net Worth: $3.6 billion | Age: 80 | Citizenship: United States
Vince McMahon took his company, World Wrestling Entertainment, from a regional wrestling promotion to a global entertainment brand. He joined his father’s small wrestling company in 1972, bought it ten years later, and took it public in 1999. In 2023, McMahon arranged a massive $21 billion tie-up of WWE and Ultimate Fighting Championship to create a new company called TKO Group Holdings. He resigned as Executive Chairman of TKO in 2024 due to accusations of sexual misconduct, which he denies.
#3. Michael Jordan
Net Worth: $4.3 billion | Age: 63 | Citizenship: United States
Jordan accumulated around $90 million in salaries during his period of work in the National Basketball Association; however, most of his earnings come from sponsorship deals. Earnings from sponsorship deals with companies like Nike, Hanes, and Gatorade have earned him more than $2 billion in pretax revenue. In 2023, he sold most of his majority share in the Charlotte Hornets in a deal valued at around $3 billion; however, it is believed that he retained a minority share in the company.
#2. George Lucas
Net Worth: $5.2 billion | Age: 81 | Citizenship: United States
Although George Lucas is known for his creation of Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, his sale of his production company, Lucasfilm, to Disney in 2012 for around $4 billion in cash and stock led him to step out of filmmaking. Now his focus is solely on giving back to his community through his philanthropic work and creating his museum of narrative art, which is set to open in Los Angeles this year.
#1. Steven Spielberg
Net Worth: $7.1 billion | Age: 79 | Citizenship: United States
The founder of DreamWorks and the highest-grossing film director in history continues to collect revenue from every ticket sold at Universal Studios theme parks because of his successful movies like Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Indiana Jones. His latest movie, science fiction thriller Disclosure Day, is set to hit theaters in May.
