Jay-Z Net Worth Is Now A Whopping $2.5 Billion; Annually Earns Millions Outside Of Music

Jay-Z is now the world's richest rapper, thanks to his businesses and investments.

The latest estimate from Forbes put his net worth at $2.5 billion, which makes him currently the 1,209th wealthiest person in the world. He had an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion last year.

The 53-year-old artist's fortune has grown impressively in recent years despite not releasing a new album or embarking on a solo tour.

Jay-Z, born Shawn Corey Carter, "mints millions" from his champagne brand Armand de Brignac and cognac brand D'Usse each year, according to Forbes.

He was named the first billionaire rapper in 2019, thanks to his vast business empire, which includes record sales, touring, music royalties, merchandise, endorsements, business ventures, numerous investments in companies, and various investment properties in New York and Los Angeles.

Celebrity Net Worth estimated that Jay-Z earns at least $70 million to $80 million from his assets "in any given year."

Between 1999 and 2013, Jay-Z founded the entertainment company Roc Nation, sports management company Roc Nation Sports, clothing brand Rocawear and luxury sports bar chain 40/40 Club.

He also launched the digital lifestyle magazine Life + Times in 2011 and the cannabis line Monogram in 2020, as well as acquired Armand de Brignac and the media technology company Aspiro in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Jay-Z's $56 million acquisition of Aspiro included the subscription-based music streaming service Tidal.

In 2021, the artist entered into a deal with Jack Dorsey's digital payments company Square, which shelled out nearly $300 million in cash and stock to acquire a majority ownership stake in Tidal. Jay-Z joined Square's board of directors following the deal.

In the same year, the rapper sold 50% of his champagne brand to LVMH — the French multinational holding and conglomerate that is home to luxury fashion houses Tiffany & Co., Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy and Marc Jacobs, among many others.

In February, Jay-Z sold half of his 50% stake in D'Usse cognac to Bacardi, which already owned the other 50%, for $750 million. Jay-Z now owns 24.9%, worth $747 million, while the family-owned spirits company owns 75.1% of D'Usse, according to CNW. The sale reportedly pushed his net worth from $1.3 billion to $2 billion.

Jay-Z makes investments through Marcy Venture Partners, which he co-founded alongside Jay Brown and Larry Marcus. The firm, which is named after the housing project in which the rapper grew up, raised an $85 million fund in 2019.

Jay-Z purchased a $2 million stake in the ride-sharing app Uber in 2013, according to Forbes. The company is now worth over $60 billion.

Marcy Venture Partners previously funded Rihanna's lingerie brand Savage x Fenty and Therabody. The firm also invested in Stellar Pizza, a robot pizza truck business run by former SpaceX engineers, leading the first funding round of $16.5 million.

The business mogul also had endorsement deals with brands such as Chevy, Budweiser, Armadale Vodka, and Hewlett Packard. He was also tapped as co-brand director of Budweiser Select back in 2006.

In addition to his business ventures, Jay-Z's music catalog has an estimated value of $75 million. He is considered one of the best-selling music artists of all time, selling 27.3 million albums across his career. He has won a total of 24 Grammy Awards and has the most No.1 albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 music chart.

He also owns a fine art collection worth about $70 million. It includes works from the late Jean-Michel Basquiat — a famous artist in the 1980s known for his neo-expressionist paintings and graffiti art.

As for real estate, Jay-Z and his wife Beyoncé, whom he married in 2008, purchased a huge Bel Air mansion in 2017, for which they spent about $800,000 on renovations, South China Morning Post reported. Now, the 30,000-square-foot home is valued at a whopping $88 million.

The couple also owns a $4 million private island in the Bahamas, according to Celebrity Net Worth, which estimated Beyoncé's net worth to be $500 million.