Arturo Lomeli is transforming his super premium tequila brand into Mexico’s first luxury house—including hotels and boutiques—while maintaining the brand’s independence.



<abbr>I</abbr>nside his modern&nbsp;home in the hills of Guadalajara, Mexico, Arturo Lomeli is eating one of his favorite foods—taquitos, piled high with crema, salsa and guacamole—as tequila is poured into crystal flutes around the table. The blue-and-white hand-painted ceramic bottles that Lomeli’s brand, Clase Azul, has become famous for dot the room.



Next up are mezcals in decanters painted a matte black, red or teal. And then there’s the special edition añejo tequilas, featuring artisans from around Mexico. To the right of the overflowing lunch table, Lomeli starts pulling out more bottles from his bar—where a large surrealist-style portrait of Clase Azul’s founder and CEO with a bird on his shoulder watches over his personal collection.



“My spiritual soul was chosen to protect it. I&#8217;m the guardian. A Mexican messenger,” says Lomeli, 52, as sips of the $1,500 Dia De Los Muertos collection 2024 release—in a purple bottle featuring a metal skeleton playing an accordion—make the rounds for everyone but Lomeli. He gave up drinking a few years ago, he says, partly because he wants to live past 100.



That doesn’t stop him from running his super-premium tequila brand that’s exported to 92 countries. Over the past three decades, Lomeli has perfected a playbook that relies on authenticity, from the distillation process to keeping the business Mexican-owned. He takes a longterm view and has invested vertically even where it might seem absurd.



For example, one of the most recent additions to his sprawling bottling plant in the state of Jalisco—where a team of 50 artisans each glaze 100 signature ceramic decanters per day five-days a week—is a box-making facility pumping out custom packaging as fast at 18,000 sheets per hour. Clase Azul even manufactures the metal caps for its decanters, at a rate of 476 caps per hour. This strategy of going deep has created one of the hottest tequila brands ever sold.



“They&#8217;ve carved out a niche. Arturo’s got this vision that is very different than all the other tequilas,” says Wayne Chaplin, CEO of $26 billion (annual sales) Southern Glazer, which has distributed Clase Azul for two decades. “Sometimes people are very anxious to sell more, quicker. He’s not willing to compromise the luxury aspirations for his brand to get additional sales.”



Analysts in the food industry say that if Clase Azul were to ever sell, the deal would be in the billions. Which says as much about the sky-high multiples that spirits trade at these days as it does about the strength of Lomeli’s business. Clase Azul says it keeps its financials private. From 200,000 accounts&nbsp;globally, Clase Azul has estimated annual revenue of $150 million—surpassing the sales Casamigos had when Diageo purchased it in 2017 for $1 billion, or a deal value of 10 times revenue.



Hand-made Tale: Clase Azul&#8217;s signature ceramic decanters are produced in Jalisco, Mexico by a team of 36 artisans who create around 200 bottles a day, five days a week.Clase Azul



Forbes&nbsp;estimates Clase Azul could be worth more than $1.5 billion. That’s using a multiple of 10 times sales, which is on the lower end of today’s market, particularly for a tequila brand. Beyond the Casamigos sale, Bacardi acquired Patron in 2018 at 8 times sales for a total of $5.1 billion. In 2022, actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Teremana tequila sold a minority stake to Jägermeister in a deal industry insiders peg as high as $4 billion, or as much as 25 times estimated sales. Other spirits acquisitions are just as high—in 2020, actor Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation gin, for example, sold for $610 million, or an estimated 24 times revenue.



Those high multiples match the profitability. Clase Azul’s net income margins are estimated above 30%. Gross margins approach 70%. That&nbsp;tops publicly traded spirits conglomerates like $9 billion (sales) Constellation Brands (owner of Svedka and tequilas Casa Noble and Mi Casa) or $20 billion (sales) Diageo (Don Julio tequila, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff).



But don’t expect an acquisition or public offering any time soon—Lomeli says Clase Azul will remain independent, as well as 100% Mexican-owned. Lomeli is the brand’s majority shareholder. A minority stake is owned by his brother-in-law from his first marriage, Juan Sanchez, who advised Lomeli as a banker based in San Francisco before starting full-time in 2003.



Together, the two men built Clase Azul through a combination of small business loans and grit, and Lomeli says they have no interest in changing that now: “We&#8217;re not in a rush.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<abbr>A</abbr>fter growing up&nbsp;in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, Lomeli graduated from the university there with a degree in political science&nbsp;and decided to open his own bar. But the fun had faded by his 24th birthday, and he tried making and selling alcohol instead. He first launched a pomegranate liquor called La Pinta. Then came a tequila—a low-quality volume play with generic branding. Both ventures failed.



“To be unattached is one of the keys,” Lomeli says of his business philosophy. “If you&#8217;re attached to something, and if that disappears out of your control, you&#8217;re going to suffer.”



Lomeli adds, “I am attached to the things that I can control, which is my emotions, my reactions, my way of thinking, my discipline, my determination.”



He’s learned that stoicism the hard way. (Though Lomeli still serves La Pinta at his home.) After going back to school in 1999, he realized a luxury brand with Mexican-made ceramics could set his tequila business apart.



The first bottles of Clase Azul reposado launched in 2000 with 58 cases. Early on, an importer in San Diego nearly tricked Lomeli, then unable to read English, to give up all of the U.S. rights. But Lomeli had asked Sanchez to review the contract and narrowly avoided getting ripped off.



To secure debt in the early years, Sanchez counseled to focus on profitability. That meant it took longer to build the consumer brand, but Lomeli could retain his equity without giving up shares to outside investors.



“When you&#8217;re independent and private, although the journey is harder, you&#8217;re more in control,” says Sanchez. “A lot of people think it&#8217;s an overnight success story, but it&#8217;s truly been nearly 28 years of a lot of hard work and pain and suffering.”



Lomeli started seeing results after bringing on Sanchez full-time to focus on America. After waiting 18 months for an importer’s license, Lomeli and Sanchez found a few popular establishments around San Francisco to try bottles. By the time Southern Glazer called, Clase Azul was sold at 100 of the area’s top restaurants and bars. Southern took over distribution in 2005. Sales tripled within six months, and America became so important that Lomeli moved to&nbsp;San Diego for four years.



Through the growing pains, a group of celebrity investors offered to inject capital into the business. Lomeli and Sanchez agreed and prepared to double production. But the deal fell through, and they got caught overextended with too much inventory and not enough cash. Lomeli moved back to Guadalajara to steer the business back to profitability.



Brush With Greatness: Even as Clase Azul has grown to 140,000 cases annually, a Mexican artisan paints every bottle.Zenith Adventure Media



As brand recognition grew from resorts in Los Cabos, Mexico, expansion mode hit again by 2013. It caused Lomeli, an avid golfer who today owns a local soccer team in Baja, to relocate once again—this time to New York City, an underperforming market event though it was one of Southern’s biggest.



After more than 1,000 tastings around New York—for which he lugged bottles around the city—cases of Clase Azul started selling out. Emboldened, in 2014 Lomeli approached Southern to end his distribution agreement in New York. After some negotiating, Southern agreed, and Lomeli built up his own local salesforce.



“We control for longevity,” adds Lomeli. “If you don&#8217;t face the fear, you&#8217;re not going to evolve yourself.”



By 2019, Lomeli’s strategy paid off—revenue surpassed $55 million. That year, he and Sanchez got an offer to buy the company for $1 billion. They said no.



“It’s not authentic,” Lomeli recalls telling one of the bankers at the time.



More investors have been turned down since then. They also considered turning parent company Casa Tradicion into a conglomerate with vodka and other spirits, but ultimately decided to only sell what’s “rooted in our culture.”



As Clase Azul has grown, Lomeli has invested in infrastructure on a big scale. Its bottling factory opened in Jalisco in 2022 with the capacity to make 150,000 bottles per month. All the while, Clase Azul maintained quality while doubling down on exclusivity. Some editions have produced just 10 bottles.



Tequila has been on a rollercoaster with more ups than downs. In 2022 tequila was America’s fastest-growing major spirits category, with double-digit growth or more among super premium brands. But there’s been a recent slowdown. Projections were off for 2023—so much that Clase Azul expected the market to grow 44% but it only grew 4%. In the aftermath, Lomeli shut down a tequila factory and a ceramics-making facility.



“Growing at triple digits put us in a machine of growth that was very stressful,” says Lomeli, who often works at home from his hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber and is building a dream spa there to extend what he believes could be his last reincarnation. “Most successful people are not the ones who have more money. They are the ones who have enough. So the question is, when is enough?”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<abbr>At</abbr>an unlisted-on-Google-Maps&nbsp;space in downtown Brooklyn called The Loft, Clase Azul has been building a community through collectors-only tasting events and concierge services for its top customers that has even included a marriage proposal. On a recent December night, The Loft was packed with about 30 collectors who had all pre-ordered a trio of special edition bottles of Clase Azul’s Master Artisan collection for $22,500, without tasting a single drop.



As the husband-and-wife duo Fernando Jimón and María Elena López who specialize in the dying Mexican art of&nbsp;barro bandera&nbsp;(or “flag-colored clay”) unveiled the designs and their inspiration, the collectors sipped the tequila for the first time. A green bottle featuring the Mexican folkore of nahuales (people who can shape-shift into animals) in the form of cats. It comes with tequila aged eight years in American whiskey casks and finished in barrels from Tuscany. The tequila inside a red bottle with a moon ended up in wine barrels from Bordeaux. A white decanter with an eagle inspired by Mexico’s flag had tequila finished in fortified wine barrels from Bombarral, Portugal.



“It’s the Porsche of tequila,” says serial entrepreneur Ronak Patel, who spent about $26,700&nbsp;on all three of the night’s releases, as well as two other&nbsp;bottles from Clase Azul’s breast cancer awareness collection. “It’s only going to appreciate in value. And they’ve created a community of appreciation for the art that they do.”



Raising The Bar: Chic restaurants like La Terraza at Clase Azul&#8217;s property in Los Cabos, Mexico, are part of Lomeli&#8217;s hospitality vision for the brand.Clase Azul



That’s the essence of the latest evolution of Lomeli’s strategy. In addition to The Loft in Brooklyn, there’s Clase Azul properties in Tokyo, Japan, opened this year, as well as in Los Cabos, Mexico. Set on the Pacific Coast, Clase Azul opened La Terraza in 2022 featuring a high-end restaurant, bar and boutique. These locations often feature limited-edition tequilas only sold there. Next up is a new distillery built for top customers to come visit with immersive experiences. Called La Hacienda, the hospitality space is set to open in Jalisco next year, after being in the works for eight years.



“You have much more control,” Lomeli says, “and you are not in the hands of somebody who can destroy you.”



It’s community-building 2.0 – for some of the richest people around the world. This core is the future of Clase Azul. Lomeli wants Clase Azul to become the first Mexican luxury house. His big vision extends beyond tequila to ceramics and more. A cerveza-style beer or a Mexican-grown wine could easily join the lineup, and a line of luxury hotels across Mexico, like Nobu’s extension, is another goal.



“That&#8217;s the biggest dream. It goes perfectly with our purpose to exist—to captivate the world of the magic of Mexican culture,” says Lomeli. “We have that in our veins, in our DNA.”



And he can afford to build his company over time. “The luxury industry requires another thing,” Lomeli says. “The other pillar is patience.”

20th Anniversary Celebration Of Clase Azul Tequila

How Clase Azul Built A Billion-Dollar Tequila Business Beyond The Top Shelf

<abbr>In</abbr> 1882, John D. Rockefeller, the world’s richest man, created the first full-service single-family office in the U.S. to manage and invest his fortune, said to be $1.4 billion ($31 billion in today’s dollars) at his death in 1937. Fast-forward 142 years, and many members of The Forbes 400 have a family office to help them manage their enormous fortunes.



But so do thousands of other American families who don’t belong to the billionaire class. At their core, family offices are a means to invest, preserve and pass on fortunes—not to build them de novo. They’re both a safety net and status symbol. “People are busy, and they want to know: ‘How are we doing? Is there anything to worry about?’ ” says Mark Rogozinski, president of Family Office Services for Chicago-based Cresset Asset Management.



Family offices are taking off for many reasons, including increasing wealth and aggressive marketing to the ordinary rich. Baby Boomers and their elders also have concerns about passing on their accumulated wealth (in aggregate, some $84 trillion) and have a desire to involve younger generations in philanthropy. On the other side, the family office providers have access to new technology that can better monitor investment performance and share financial data, making it easier for them to expand. The final impetus is tax savings—the 2017 tax overhaul, coupled with a tax court ruling that year involving the Lender family (of bagel fame), mean that investment expenses which are no longer deductible on individual tax returns can often be written off at the family office level.



It’s unclear how many single-family offices now operate in the U.S.—estimates range from 3,000 up to 7,000. But all agree that the number is growing. Deloitte conservatively estimates there will be 3,550 single-family offices in North America in 2025, up 61% from 2019. (For comparison,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;counted 880 billionaires in the U.S. and Canada in 2024.)



It still requires at least $100 million in investable assets (and preferably $250 million) for a single-family office to make sense, but those with as little as $25 million, or even $10 million, can find a spot with a multifamily operator if they’re ready to pay for estate, tax and charitable planning and access to alternative investments like derivatives and venture capital.



A single-family office costs a minimum of $1 million annually (and usually more), but multi-family offices run from 0.5% to 2% of assets a year (generally, the bigger the portfolio, the lower the percentage). Sometimes there are transaction and performance fees as well. Concierge services, such as managing a client’s homes and security and travel, may cost extra. The fee structure is often negotiable and bespoke, just like the services. Some multifamily offices charge a fixed fee per year, starting at $50,000 and ranging up to $1 million for full service.



More and more people want (and can afford) such white-glove treatment. The Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances found the richest 1% of Americans (that’s 1.3 million households) had a minimum net worth of&nbsp;<a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WFRBL99T999309" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">$11 million</a>, while the top 0.1% (<a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WFRBLTP1310" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">133,000</a>&nbsp;households) had a net worth of at least&nbsp;<a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WFRBLTP1311" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">$46 million</a>.



The original multifamily offices were born when a single rich family invited in a handful of others to defray costs. Cresset, founded seven years ago in Chicago by two private-equity veterans to manage their own families’ wealth, is one of a new breed of registered investment advisors expanding aggressively into the multifamily business. After merging in June with The Connable Office, a 130-year-old multifamily office, it’s up to $60 billion in assets under management.



One new multifamily player, New York City’s Beatrice Advisors, is the first owned by a Black woman. It was launched in June by Christina Lewis with assets from her own family and those of her rich friends. Her father, Forbes 400 member Reginald Lewis—a Baltimore-born, Harvard-trained deal lawyer—died in 1993 at 50 from an inoperable brain tumor. Christina was just 12 then, and describes her family as being “underadvised” at his death. Beatrice is investing heavily in technology, creating digital dashboards for its clients that display a family’s whole net worth, including their investment portfolio, business assets and even intellectual property. The aim, Lewis says, is “transitioning our knowledge to the client over time, so that the client is in the driver’s seat.”



In contrast to the Lewises, the Lipitz family has had decades to work out its wealth transition. Gene Lipitz, now 58, got into the family office game in 1997. His dad, Roger C. Lipitz, now 82, had sold the company he built—Meridian Healthcare, a chain of 45 nursing homes—for $205 million in 1993. Father and son began collaborating on investments informally, but Roger became increasingly involved in civic and charitable work and suggested they formalize that partnership, with the younger Lipitz taking the investing lead. Gene first hired a multifamily office in 1997 but was dissatisfied. Ultimately, in 1999, after selling his own tax- and risk-management company to Citicorp, Gene decided to create his own office; it now manages investments for three generations with three full-time employees, outsourcing such functions as accounting. The office’s mission statement is revised regularly. Failing to do that, Gene says, is “a great way to lose buy-in from the next generation.”



Even for people with decades of business experience, starting a single-family office can be daunting, beginning with the challenge of hiring qualified staff. That work, too, is often outsourced. Kay Shah, a director in the Family Office Division at StevenDouglas, a national boutique search firm, spends her days recruiting financial pros to serve in family offices, which typically have five to 15 employees, she says.



New cloud-based platforms help professional managers track portfolio holdings and performance across asset classes, but family offices controlled by older generations still tend to lag technologically. Josh Kanter, an attorney and wealth advisor in Salt Lake City, concluded, based on his own experience, that family offices need to become more tech-centric. After his father, famed tax lawyer and trust engineer Burton Kanter (an advisor to the billionaire Pritzker family), died in 2001, Josh took over managing the family’s office. He found keeping all generations up to date on practical details difficult. For example, he says, the family will pay for tuition and health care, but only if certain guidelines are followed. The problem was that there was no single place to find that sort of information, other than sorting through the more than 275,000 files in the family Dropbox or calling him directly to ask.



His solution was to start his own software company, Leafplanner. It acts as an overlay to existing financial software like Addepar, which tracks multiasset portfolio performance, or Arch, which organizes tax documents. Leafplanner can guide family members through the process of getting answers to specific questions on everything from investment decisions to charitable giving. It can be customized for an unlimited number of users, controlling access to what information each can see. Since launching in 2022, Leafplanner has installed the software for 145 other families, Kanter says. As for his own family, he says, they no longer have to ask, “What happens if Josh is the next one to get hit by a bus?”

Group of business people, bank managers, bankers having meeting, discussion on global planning and financial research. Help, advisory, financial services, support and investment strategy concept

Why You No Longer Need To Be A Billionaire To Have Your Own Family Office

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">Topline</h2>



The billionaire founder of Telegram is offering to pay for the in vitro fertilization process of medically eligible women who are interested in having a baby using his sperm at a fertility clinic in Moscow, the latest billionaire to speak openly about his desire to widely reproduce.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">Key Facts</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/pavel-durov/?list=rtb/">Pavel Durov</a>, worth an estimated $15.5 billion as of Tuesday, is offering to cover the cost of IVF treatment for interested, healthy women under the age of 38 who will use his sperm to have a baby using the Altra Vita IVF clinic, which claims it has the exclusive right to store and use his biomaterial.



The clinic&nbsp;<a href="https://altravita-ivf.com/free-ivf-with-pavel-durov-donated-sperm.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">describes</a>&nbsp;the offer as &#8220;a very generous contribution to society&#8221; from &#8220;one of the most famous and successful entrepreneurs of our time.&#8221;



In July,&nbsp;<a href="https://t.me/durov/339" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Durov said</a>&nbsp;he&#8217;s had more than 100 biological children in 12 countries via sperm bank donations he&#8217;s made over the last 15 years, and announced his plan to &#8220;open-source my DNA so that my biological children can find each other more easily.&#8221;



He said he was once told by someone at an IVF clinic it was his &#8220;civic duty&#8221; to donate sperm to help couples trying to conceive, and said he now wants to &#8220;destigmatize&#8221; the notion of sperm donation and encourage more healthy men to do so.



He also has five children with two ex-girlfriends.



Durov was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2024/08/26/officials-confirm-arrest-of-billionaire-telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-in-france-heres-what-we-know/">arrested in France</a>&nbsp;in August and has been forbidden to leave the country as authorities investigate charges of enabling criminal activity on his messaging app, including claims he allowed drug trafficking, fraud and the sharing of child pornography.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">Key Background</h2>



Durov, 40, and his older brother developed Telegram, a secure messaging app with more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2024/08/26/officials-confirm-arrest-of-billionaire-telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-in-france-heres-what-we-know/">950 million</a>&nbsp;users, in 2013. He left his home country of Russia—where Telegram was banned from 2018 to 2021—after refusing to provide encrypted data on users of the first social networking site he founded, called VKontakte. He became a French citizen in 2021 but lived in Dubai, where he was once the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbesmiddleeast.com/billionaires/world-billionaires/meet-pavel-durov-the-richest-and-youngest-billionaire-living-in-the-middle-east" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">youngest and richest</a>&nbsp;billionaire in the Middle East, until his August arrest.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2024/08/26/officials-confirm-arrest-of-billionaire-telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-in-france-heres-what-we-know/">His arrest</a>&nbsp;is part of an investigation into Telegram’s content moderation practices and comes amid claims the app has not properly cooperated with law enforcement when the app is used for criminal activity, particularly child sex crimes. A month after his arrest,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/23/telegram-illegal-content-pavel-durov-arrest" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Durov said</a>&nbsp;Telegram had removed “problematic content” and would take a more proactive approach going forward in complying with government requests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">Tangent</h2>



Durov isn’t the only high-profile sperm donor who’s been open about his desire to widely reproduce. Last year, courts had to order Dutch crypto investor and YouTuber&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/04/29/dutch-court-orders-superdonor-to-stop-donating-sperm_6024754_4.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Jonathan Meijer</a>&nbsp;to stop donating sperm after he was suspected of fathering more than 550 children. Kyle Gordy, who was featured in the documentary &#8220;The Man with 1000 Kids,&#8221; told Netflix he thinks he has about 70 children via sperm donation. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has 10 children with three different women, at least&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexzhavoronkov/2022/07/27/elon-musk-and-other-billionaires-make-their-babies-via-ivf-and-surrogatesis-it-a-future-of-reproduction/">five of which</a>&nbsp;were conceived using IVF. He has said that he believes in vitro fertilization is a more efficient way to have children, and has called a collapsing birth rate the &#8220;biggest danger civilization faces by far.” Billionaire and president-elect Donald Trump earlier this year said he would support public funding for in vitro fertilization or mandate it be covered by insurance, which could broaden the use of procedures that can currently cost tens of thousands of dollars.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">Forbes Valuation</h2>



Durov was ranked as the 141st richest person in the world Tuesday with a net worth of $15.5 billion.

Telegram Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov

Billionaire Pavel Durov Offering Free IVF To Women Willing To Have His Baby

The only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton overtook French heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers on Wednesday morning.



With Walmart stock&nbsp;at an all-time high, Alice Walton–the only daughter of the retail giant’s founder Sam Walton (d. 1992)–just became the world’s wealthiest woman for the first time since May 2022. With an estimated $89.1 billion fortune, Walton, 74, overtook L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of France, who briefly became the first female centibillionaire in June and is now worth an estimated $88.4 billion.



Walton now ranks as the 18th richest person in the world, according to&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;real-time tracker, one spot behind her brother Rob Walton. Walmart stock is up 47% year to date, while L’Oreal is down 13% during the same period.



Despite selling more than $22 billion of Walmart stock over the past decade—and giving away more than $11 billion of the retailer’s shares—Sam Walton’s heirs still own nearly 46% of the firm their father founded, due to significant stock buybacks that have prevented the family’s stake from being diluted.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates that three-quarters of the clan’s stock is split evenly between Alice Walton and her siblings Jim and Rob Walton, who are worth $95.9 billion and $94.2 billion as of 9:15 am Eastern time Wednesday, respectively. Most of the rest belongs to the heirs of their brother John Walton (d. 2005): his widow Christy Walton and son Lukas Walton, who are worth $16.4 billion and $33.9 billion, respectively.



Rob Walton retired from Walmart’s board in June after more than four decades as a director, including more than 20 years as chairman–a role that has been held by his son-in-law Greg Penner since 2015. Jim Walton was replaced by his son Steuart Walton on the retailer’s board in 2016 and now chairs the family’s Arvest Bank.



Alice Walton, meanwhile, worked briefly at Walmart as a buyer of children’s clothes, after graduating from Trinity University in Texas in 1971, before shifting her focus to curating art. She chaired the family’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in their hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas for a decade, before handing the reins to her nephew Tom Walton’s wife, Olivia Walton, in 2021. Alice Walton is credited with founding the museum, though almost all of the $1.6 billion it cost to open the facility in 2011 came from trusts in the names of her brother John Walton (d. 2005) and mother Helen Walton (d. 2007).



Alice Walton has ramped up her personal philanthropy over the last decade, pouring more than $5.7 billion into five family charitable foundations that have doled out more than $1.1 billion of her funds to date, including more than $377 million her Art Bridges Foundation has spent acquiring and loaning out works of American art to more than 230 museums across the country since its founding in 2016. Her new Alice L. Walton School of Medicine–a stand-alone entity–plans to welcome its inaugural class to Bentonville in 2025.



“Over the past several years, I’ve founded new organizations focused on the arts as well as health and well-being,” Walton said in a press release announcing her retirement as chair of Crystal Bridges in 2021. “I’d like to focus more fully on my board chair roles at these entities.”

Walmart Holds Annual Multi-Day Shareholders Meeting In Arkansas

Alice Walton Just Became The World’s Wealthiest Woman

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">Topline</h2>



Larry Ellison, Oracle’s billionaire chairman, surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the second-richest person in the world as Oracle’s shares surged again Monday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">Key Facts</h2>



Ellison—who holds roughly 40% of Oracle’s shares—has a net worth of about $206 billion as of around 2:45 p.m. EDT after an increase of $8.3 billion (4.2%),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#79eecf883d78">according</a>&nbsp;to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list.



Shares of Oracle have increased by nearly 5% to over $170, boosting Ellison’s net worth, while Amazon shares fell slightly (0.6%), subtracting about $1.6 billion from Bezos’ net worth of $203.4 billion.



Ellison now only trails Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $250.7 billion fortune for the title of the world’s richest person, while Bezos now ranks just ahead of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg ($183.5 billion).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">Big Number</h2>



$34 billion. That’s how much Ellison’s fortune has increased since reaching $172 billion on Sept. 6, when Ellison was ranked as the world’s fifth-wealthiest person.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">Key Background</h2>



Oracle’s stock has jumped 21% over the last five trading sessions after releasing a strong earnings report and guidance last week, surpassing analyst expectations. The cloud software firm also announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services, adding to earlier deals with Google and Microsoft. Oracle’s rally has swelled Ellison’s wealth, propelling the company’s 80-year-old chairman ahead of Zuckerberg and Bernard Arnault, the LVMH chief executive and Europe’s richest man. Ellison is set to become the controlling shareholder of CBS parent Paramount once David Ellison, Larry’s son and Skydance Media’s CEO, completes a takeover of the firm.

Rebels With A Cause Gala 2019

Larry Ellison Becomes World’s Second-Richest Again—Passing Jeff Bezos

Cannes Lions International Festival Of Creativity 2024 – Day Three

The Top 10 Richest People In The World (September 2024)

Billionaire Elon Musk Receives Axel Springer Award

The Top 10 Richest People In The World (July 2024)

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



A Swiss court sentenced four members of the billionaire Hinduja family to up to four-and-a-half years in prison on Friday, after they were found guilty of exploiting household staff at their Lake Geneva home, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2024/06/17/billionaire-hinduja-family-accused-of-confiscating-staff-passports-forcing-18-hour-work-days/">forcing them to work 18-hour</a>&nbsp;days for low pay, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/21/british-billionaire-hindujas-sentenced-to-jail-in-swiss-exploitation-case" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">multiple</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ggl6pe52eo" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">reports</a>—though members of the family were acquitted on human trafficking charges.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal were sentenced to four and a half years in prison, while their son Ajay and his wife Namrata received four-year sentences after they were each found guilty of exploitation and illegal employment.



Workers at the Hinduja family’s Lake Geneva home alleged they were paid $8 for an entire 18-hour shift, an amount less than one-tenth required under Swiss law.



The family members faced criminal charges of human trafficking for allegations they illegally brought the household staff in and out of Switzerland after confiscating their passports and prevented them from leaving the Swiss property.



Human trafficking charges against the Hinduja family were dropped after the court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hinduja-switzerland-geneva-human-trafficking-exploitation-india-b0a40f9872ea096c4722754c1267490b" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">reportedly</a>&nbsp;ruled the staff partially understood what was happening to them.



Attorneys representing the four family members said they would appeal the court’s decision, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ggl6pe52eo" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">BBC</a>,



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



The Hinduja family has an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/hinduja/">estimated net worth</a>&nbsp;of $20 billion as of October, and was ranked 7th on Forbes’ list of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/india-billionaires/">India’s Richest</a>&nbsp;last year. The family controls the Hinduja group, a multinational conglomerate founded in 1914 with interests in shipping, banking and media. Most of the family’s fortune is generated from the group’s investments across sectors like oil, healthcare and real estate, after several decades of trading goods in India. Prakash and Kamal live in Monaco, and the family owns real estate in London—including the Raffles London hotel—and Mumbai.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Some of the household staff filed civil suits against the Hinduja family, alleging they were exploited while working at the Lake Geneva home. The workers settled with the family earlier this week, though the terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Swiss prosecutor Yves Bertossa <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-17/hindujas-spent-more-on-pet-dog-than-they-paid-a-servant-swiss-prosecutor-says" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a> alleged the family spent more money on their family dog than they did on the workers, whose contracts didn’t specify working hours or days off. The Hinduja family denied the claims, while family attorney Romain Jordan said the Swiss prosecutors had a “fantasized” version of events, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-07/hinduja-family-human-trafficking-case-puts-unwelcome-spotlight-on-geneva-elite" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a>.

Opening Day Of The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2017

Billionaire Hinduja Family Members Get 4.5 Years In Swiss Prison For Exploiting House Staff

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Amazon founder Jeff Bezos overtook French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault as the second-wealthiest person in the world Monday morning after LVMH’s shares fell and Amazon shares slightly increased—and the pair continued to flip-flop throughout the day for the title.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Bezos had a net worth of about $204.3 billion as of just after 4 p.m. EDT on Monday—an increase of about $2.4 billion on the day—according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#76751fb33d78">Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List</a>.



Arnault, who oversees the LVMH empire of luxury fashion and cosmetics brands like Louis Vuitton and Sephora, was just behind Bezos with a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#76751fb33d78">net worth</a>&nbsp;of $203.9 billion, down $4.3 billion as of 4 p.m.



Shares of Arnault’s LVMH were down 2.21% at market close Monday, while Amazon shares were up 1.5%, helping Bezos’ net worth slightly increase.



The wealthiest person in the world remains Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who Forbes estimates to have a net worth of $207.8 billion as of Monday afternoon.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



How the pair continues to flip throughout the day. As of 4 p.m., Bezos and Arnault had swapped the No. 2 and No. 3 spots at least four times.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The top of our billionaires tracker has seen a number of changes in recent weeks. Prior to Bezos passing Arnault, Musk and Arnault were jostling for the position of wealthiest person in the world. Amazon is trading up more than 6% over the last three months, while Tesla is up only 0.39% and LVMH has fallen 12.99% over the same period. Musk’s fortune has fluctuated this year as Tesla stock has struggled, but Musk could run away with the No. 1 spot if Tesla shareholders vote to reinstate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2024/06/05/tesla-shareholders-vote-on-elon-musks-50-billion-pay-package-next-week-heres-whats-at-stake/?sh=71173676fa42">his $50 billion pay package</a>&nbsp;on Thursday, which would increase his equity in Tesla from 13% to 22%.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tannget">TANNGET</h2>



Earlier this year, Bezos was going back and forth with Musk for the position of second-wealthiest person in the world and wealthiest in the U.S. The pair swapped spots <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2024/03/28/jeff-bezos-overtakes-elon-musk-as-richest-person-in-the-us-13th-flip-flop-this-month/?sh=4f85db26488f">13 times</a> in March, and prior to that, Musk had <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2024/03/06/jeff-bezos-briefly-overtakes-elon-musk-as-us-richest-person/?sh=48c7a574111a">not lost</a> his status as the richest person in the U.S. for more than two years.

Amazon CEO And Blue Origin Founder Jeff Bezos  Speaks At Air Force Association Air, Space And Cyber Conference

Jeff Bezos Tops Bernard Arnault For World’s 2nd Richest Person, Behind Elon Musk

Jerry Jones paid $150 million for the Dallas Cowboys in 1989. Just the team’s brand is now worth $1.73 billion, the most in sports. 



The Dallas Cowboys were a dying brand when Jerry Jones paid $150 million for the NFL team and the operating rights to its stadium in 1989. Three Super Bowls—1992, 1993, 1995—a new stadium, a ton of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/jerry-jones-dallas-peter-king-rumors-ccontroversy-bad-news-publicity-billion" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">publicity</a>&nbsp;over the course of 35 years and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.samford.edu/sports-analytics/fans/2022/Die-Hard-or-Fair-Weather-Fans-Ranking-All-32-NFL-Fan-Bases" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">largest fan base</a>&nbsp;in the NFL has the Cowboys valued at $9 billion and the name of the team alone worth $1.73 billion—the most in team sports. It’s been a long time since the Cowboys played for the Lombardi Trophy, but Jones&nbsp;<a href="https://www.managingip.com/article/2a5ch91g842powa8owiyo/jerry-jones-dallas-cowboys-the-business-of-branding" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">created the template</a>&nbsp;for branding in sports.



Can you quantify the value of a sports team brand? We think our proprietary model gets pretty close, or at least provides a reasonable way to measure brands on in an equal, mathematical way. Our team brand values measure the portion of the team’s enterprise value not attributable to the size or demographics of the team’s market, the venue or league-shared revenue. In essence, Forbes’ proprietary formula of team brand values quantifies how much of its worth is over-and-above what the typical team in the same league and similar market is worth (as derived from a multiple of revenue).



Take stadium sponsorships and advertising, for example. The Cowboys rake in over $260 million from these sources during 2022 at AT&amp;T Stadium versus an average of about $65 million for other big market teams that control their stadiums like the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Texans. Our brand calculation counts roughly $130 million of the Cowboys sponsorship and advertising revenue towards the value of its brand.



In basketball, the Los Angeles Lakers brand take the top spot with a brand value of $1 billion. The Lakers generated over $160 million from their local media rights during the 2022-23 season, some $20 million more than the New York Knicks and more than double what the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls earned. The Lakers local media rights are worth $20 million in brand value.



Winning Champions League trophies is what Real Madrid is<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCWX_C66Udo" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">&nbsp;all about</a>, and a big reason the Spanish side, which recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/kylian-mbappe-real-madrid-shirt-number-b2555695.html" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">signed</a>&nbsp;superstar Kylian Mbappe, are the world’s most valuable brand among soccer teams. One big payoff for the team’s brand is having the most valuable kit and front-of-jersey deals in soccer, worth a combined average of $207 million per season. Of that $207 million, our formula applies $52 million to Real Madrid’s brand value.



To get the most valuable sports team brands we culled our data base of MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA and soccer teams based on our most recent team valuations for each league. The ten most valuable brands, listed in the table below, is dominated by soccer, which comprises four teams. That is not hard to understand given soccer is the most global team sport in the world. No NHL or MLS teams made our top 10 list because their revenue, and thus by extension brand values, are too low.

Jamal Murray Attends Melbourne NBA Store Opening

The World’s Most Valuable Sports Team Brands

Villarreal v Real Madrid CF – La Liga EA Sports

The World’s Most Valuable Soccer Teams 2024

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos, who has an estimated net worth of $199.6 billion, is once again the second-wealthiest person in the world as of Thursday, overtaking Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has an estimated net worth of $197.4 billion, and marking the second switch of the week for the battling billionaires.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="777" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/GettyImages-1387431806.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-54750" style="width:602px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/GettyImages-1387431806.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/GettyImages-1387431806-300x228.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/GettyImages-1387431806-768x583.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(Photo by Christian Marquardt &#8211; Pool/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Bezos overtook Musk Thursday after losing his position as wealthiest person in the U.S. to him on Monday, following a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2024/04/29/musk-passes-bezos-as-richest-american-again-as-tesla-stock-soars/?sh=6aca45993bdf">surge in Tesla stock</a>&nbsp;that vaulted Musk above Bezos and made him about $25 billion richer than he was just six days prior.



Bezos’ estimated net worth was up about $2.5 billion on Thursday at noon EDT, while Musk’s fortune had fallen about $276 million, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#30559b653d78">Forbes Real-Time Billionaire List</a>.



The wealthiest person in the world is still LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, who was worth an estimated $206.9 billion as of Thursday morning.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



1.84%. That’s how much Amazon’s stock was up at noon EDT on Thursday. Tesla’s share price, in comparison, was up about 0.08%.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The two billionaires have been going back-and-forth for the position of second wealthiest person in the world for months—they flip-flopped&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2024/03/28/jeff-bezos-overtakes-elon-musk-as-richest-person-in-the-us-13th-flip-flop-this-month/?sh=50da75a0488f">at least 13 times</a>&nbsp;in March. But, before March, Musk had steadily held the first or second spots on the list: March 6 was the first time since Aug. 19, 2021 that he placed outside of the top two in Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings. Bezos had a resurgence of wealth earlier this year and Musk’s wealth has fluctuated as Tesla—which just announced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2024/04/30/tesla-fires-supercharger-team-musk-says-network-will-grow-at-slower-pace/?sh=255a15281644">hundreds more cuts</a>&nbsp;among its staff this week—has struggled, leading to the ongoing back-and-forth.

Jeff Bezos’s India Visit Marked By Probe and Protests

Jeff Bezos Overtakes Elon Musk As Second Wealthiest Person In The World

World Economic Forum 2024: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

OpenAI Made Sam Altman Famous. His Investments Made Him A Billionaire.

A record year for ten-figure wealth has left the billionaire class bigger and richer than ever.



What a year it’s been for the planet’s billionaires, whose fortunes continue to swell as global stock markets shrug off war, political unrest and lingering inflation. There are now more billionaires than ever: 2,781 in all, 141 more than last year and 26 more than the record set in 2021. They’re richer than ever, worth $14.2 trillion in aggregate, up by $2 trillion from 2023 and $1.1 trillion above the previous record, also set in 2021. 



Two-thirds of the list’s members are worth more than a year ago; only one fourth are poorer. Much of the gains come from the top 20, who added a combined $700 billion in wealth since 2023, and from the U.S., which now boasts a record 813 billionaires worth a combined $5.7 trillion. China remains second, with 473 (including Hong Kong) worth $1.7 trillion, despite weak consumer spending and a real estate bust that helped wipe out some $300 billion in wealth. India, which has 200 billionaires (also a record), ranks third. 



To calculate net worths, we used stock prices and exchange rates from March 8, 2024. See below for the full list of the world’s billionaires and our methodology. For daily updated net worths of all 2,781 billionaires, check out our&nbsp;<a href="http://forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">real-time billionaires rankings</a>.

Most Attractive Youtube Thumbnail (10)

FORBES WORLD’S BILLIONAIRES LIST: The Richest in 2024

Globe-trotting billionaire Mo Dewji made a fortune in East Africa selling palm oil, rope, and soda. Now he claims to have the recipe for transforming Tanzania into an agribusiness powerhouse.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Puffing on a nicotine vape and seated on a white leather chair in his $50 million home in Dubai, Mohammed “Mo” Dewji is waxing poetic about his plans to mechanize farming 2,500 miles away. “I want to make Africa, long term, a food basket for the world,” says the 48-year-old billionaire, who was born, raised and until recently lived in Tanzania. A framed photograph of a street in Zanzibar, the Tanzanian archipelago famous for lush white beaches, hangs on a wall behind him. “Why the hell are we not investing in agri?”



Dewji is well known in Tanzania, Africa’s fifth largest country with a population of 70 million. The football team owner and former politician controls a range of businesses through his consumer goods conglomerate MeTL Group, including textile manufacturing, edible oil refineries and his Mo Cola carbonated beverages line (named after himself). MeTL already grows crops like tea, avocados, and sisal (a natural fiber used in rope), which are vertically integrated into his other businesses.



Now Dewji wants to grow his agribusiness empire – by orders of magnitude. He is seeking to invest $250 million, including $100 million of his own capital, to buy and mechanize 100,000 hectares of farmland in Tanzania. MeTL would use the crops to feed its own businesses, then sell the surpluses to other Tanzanian firms, African countries and even European customers. Dewji says this “vision” came to him in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as soaring food and fertilizer prices worsened conditions of poverty and malnutrition in Africa.



Agriculture accounts for one-third of Tanzania’s annual GDP (of $75 billion), but roughly 90% of that farming is done by subsistence farmers tilling less than 5 hectares of land each. As a result, food insecurity in Tanzania is widespread: Over 30% of children are stunted, and 13 million Tanzanians live in extreme poverty, while “many others live just above the poverty line,” <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/Copy_of_tagged_Tanzania-Nutrition-Profile.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to </a>the U.S. Agency for International Development. That’s despite Tanzania being the second biggest receiver of foreign aid in Sub-Saharan Africa (behind only Ethiopia) between 1990 to 2010, <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2012-037.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">receiving </a>$26.85 billion. One of those aid suppliers, the World Bank, <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2024/01/05/ida-and-afe-tanzania-a-focus-on-people-cities-and-public-institutions-for-a-better-future#:~:text=As%20of%20August%202023%2C%20the,projects%20(%241.04%20billion%20commitments)." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">acknowledges</a> that Tanzania “still faces stubbornly high levels of poverty, in part as a result of dependence on low productivity agriculture.”



Bigger, more efficient farms could help solve Tanzania’s hunger problem. In developing countries, “Larger farms tend to be more efficient than their smaller counterparts,” a recent European Commission <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7546703/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paper</a> found. Within Africa, increasing agricultural productivity was “a substantial driver of growth and poverty reduction” in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda—in contrast to Tanzania and those countries where farming growth lagged, according to a UN <a href="https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/done-sensibly-agricultural-development-can-reduce-poverty-in-africa" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>. But agribusiness also comes with costs: human displacement, environmental degradation, disruption of local trading networks upending entire communities. Dewji says the benefits outweigh the cons. “Life goes on for the villagers but [in] a much better scenario,” he says.



Given Dewji’s prominence, any success—or failure—will have a big impact within Tanzania and potentially beyond. “This is larger than Tanzania: a success here could have implications for the continent as a whole,” says Margaret McMillan, an economics professor at Tufts University who studies economic development in East Africa, has lived in Tanzania and heard Dewji make his agribusiness pitch at a recent conference. “If he could use it as a flagship to show how [large-scale farming] can be done successfully, that would be amazing.”



That is Dewji’s long-term plan. He wants to prove his agribusiness model works in Tanzania, then raise money from global investors to replicate it in other African countries. His dream is to invest over $1 billion across 400,000 hectares—about the size of Rhode Island, or 0.3% of Tanzania’s total landmass—across at least three countries, including Zambia and Mozambique. “I spoke to the Zambian president, I spoke to the Mozambique president,” Dewji assured&nbsp;Forbes. “But I said, ‘Guys, let me first work it out in my home country first because I understand the intricacies. Let me show a project for Africa.’”



It’s not clear these dreams will come to fruition. Dewji has been trying to get this operation going for years. Eighteen months ago, he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/tanzanian-entrepreneur-dewji-plans-2-4-bln-grains-production-investment-via-spac-2022-07-08/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">sought&nbsp;</a>four times as much money, $4 billion, to fund an even larger version. He floated the idea of raising money by merging with a special purpose acquisition company and touted potential 10x returns. No partners came calling. “I never raised money because I failed to get the land,” he says.



Dewji has praised Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania’s president since 2021, for promoting more investment and private sector activity. Yet he has spent two years trying to buy 100,000 hectares of Tanzanian land from Hassan’s administration, and the deal isn’t done yet. The land is occupied by villagers and small-scale farmers but is technically owned by Tanzania’s government.



Documents seen by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;describe a key pillar of his proposal: cultivating sugar cane and building a sugar refinery on 39,000 hectares in Tanzania’s Rufiji District, a rural region named after Tanzania’s largest river. Some 95,000 people live in the area,&nbsp;<a href="https://rufijidc.go.tz/statistics" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">scattered across</a>&nbsp;200 villages and hamlets. MeTL’s acquisition would involve land transfers in 17 villages and the factory would sit on a 860-hectare plot, according to the documents.



Dewji told Forbes that, eventually, he wants to grow grains (wheat, rice, corn), edible oil crops (sunflowers, soybeans, palm), and plant proteins (pigeon peas, yellow gram) on the other 61,000 hectares of land he’d like to acquire.



There have been accusations of land-grabbing, and no wonder. Dewji wants to become Tanzania&#8217;s biggest farmer in a single stroke. “Not many people live on the targeted land,” he says, but when asked how many people live there, he declines to say. The village councils and district authorities are on-board with MeTL’s plans, Dewji adds. That hasn’t alleviated concerns about corruption.



“There&#8217;s a pretty widespread perception that the government is underhanded in these large-scale transactions, that agreements are not above board,” says Ayala Wineman, a professor of agricultural and food economics at Michigan State University who has researched Tanzania and East Africa. “And oftentimes, it&#8217;s with the collaboration of local leaders who benefit from agreeing to hand over land.”



Dewji says that any villagers and subsistence farmers displaced by MeTL will get new land to continue their farming and animal husbandry, that there will be buffer zones between his operations and their new tracts, and that MeTL will fund new roads, hospitals, schools and running water systems. The documents seen by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;promise all that and more, including annual dividends paid to local coffers and giveaways like new tractors.&nbsp;“MeTL has been extremely sensitive,” says Dewji, who calls it a “win-win” proposition.



He’ll need to defy recent history, then.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2207398120#sec-1" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">A research paper</a>&nbsp;published last year analyzed four separate large-scale land purchases in Tanzania for the purposes of agribusiness. It found that the takeovers “exacerbate farmland inequality in nearby villages” and caused “resulting inequalities [that] are not offset by improvements in other dimensions of well-being.” These local populations are “not really benefiting from these projects in any meaningful way, be it employment, the adoption of new farming practices, improvement in food security, [or] incomes,” says Jonathan Sullivan, the study’s lead author and a professor of sustainability at the University of Arizona. “Maybe Mohammed Dewji is going to do something different, but I imagine it&#8217;s going to be pretty similar.”



And yet—Tanzania needs more food. Mechanized farming of staple goods like grains and proteins – as Dewji has proposed – could help feed hungry mouths through sheer economies of scale, improved efficiencies and surpluses. “In rural Tanzania, there is a lot of food acquired through purchase,” explains Wineman. “Subsistence farmers also engage with the market to access the food they need.”



If MeTL exports crops to other countries, as Dewji envisions, Tanzania’s budget will see some of that money. “Presumably, it could generate tax revenue for the government and foreign exchange earnings,” says McMillan, hitting on two key structural issues with Tanzania’s economy: its annual trade deficits and shrinking foreign exchange reserves. Above all, perhaps, private capital should get the chance to succeed where foreign aid has failed. One consultant for the World Bank, who spoke with&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;on the condition of anonymity, described the bank’s loans and investments in Tanzania (which total&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2024/01/05/ida-and-afe-tanzania-a-focus-on-people-cities-and-public-institutions-for-a-better-future#:~:text=As%20of%20August%202023%2C%20the,projects%20(%241.04%20billion%20commitments)." rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">$8.3 billion</a>) as “moderately helpful at best.”



If anyone could pull off such an audacious venture, it’s probably Dewji, a man steeped in global ambition and daring, at times dangerous entrepreneurship. His great grandfather, born in Gujarat, India, was one of thousands of Indian Muslims who migrated to East Africa in the 1800s. His father started MeTL in the 1970s as a commodities trading firm. Dewji studied political science at Georgetown and after a brief stint on Wall Street, returned to Tanzania in 1999 to help run the family business. He grew MeTL through a series of deals in the 2000s as Tanzania privatized loss-making state-owned enterprises. He served in his country’s parliament for a decade, between 2005 to 2015—while simultaneously running MeTL. He owns a 49% stake in Simba S.C., a professional football club in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city. He frequently posts photos of himself at matches to his 4.4 million followers.



But what Dewji is most famous for is being kidnapped in October 2018 by a group of armed men in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam. The assailants kept Dewji for 10 days and demanded ransom, but in a strange twist, they released him in an abandoned field without ever receiving any payment, and no assailants were ever found guilty in a Tanzanian court of any criminal charges.



Who was behind this odd sequence of events? Two well-placed individuals told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;it was widely rumored that Tanzania’s then-President John Magufuli had orchestrated the kidnapping in connection to a dispute with Dewji about MeTL’s massive sisal holdings (sisal is a fibrous plant used to make rope, carpet, shoes and paper). Dewji told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that the kidnapping was “&#8217;politically motivated,” but did not provide further detail, other than that he never paid a ransom. “There’s parts of the puzzle I cannot speak about,” he said in a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjPSQEsUudg" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">podcast interview</a>&nbsp;about the kidnapping, calling the whole event “a paradox.”



Dewji attributes his good fortune to the prayers of ordinary Tanzanians, like those who buy Mo Cola in Dar es Salaam, or those who till the land that he hopes to buy one day. “The poor of the poorest people were praying for me,” Dewji says. “I&#8217;ll tell you something: I am indebted to Tanzanians, to Africans.”

Key Speakers on Day Two of The Qatar Economic Forum

Tanzania’s Richest Man Wants To Be Africa’s Biggest Farmer — If Everyone Gets Out Of His Way

Elon Musk’s lack of transparency in updates about his brain implant company Neuralink flouts scientific and ethical norms, raises questions about patient safety and risks setting back the entire field of neurotechnology, experts told Forbes, after the billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2024/02/20/elon-musk-says-neuralinks-first-brain-chip-patient-can-control-computer-mouse-by-thought/?sh=e072a8d298e2">touted early success&nbsp;</a>in the company’s first human patient last week.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



“What truly puzzles me about this is not the technology itself but the way of communicating scientific news,” said Marcello Ienca, a professor of ethics of AI and neuroscience at Technical University of Munich, who stressed information about Neuralink and its work is being disseminated “through casual social media updates” rather than traditional outlets for science like peer reviewed publications, public repositories or even simple pre-prints.



It “seems to sidestep the established protocols that underpin scientific integrity,” Ienca said, preventing experts from evaluating or understanding “the full scope and impact” of any claimed advances.



“A tweet is not exactly a peer-reviewed scientific report,” said L. Syd M Johnson, an ethicist at SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Center for Bioethics and Humanities, adding that Musk’s brief update gave few details on the patient’s recovery, what degree of control they have over the mouse or whether “mouse” actually meant the onscreen cursor.



Most clinical trials are also registered in the public database ClinicalTrials.gov for the sake of transparency, accountability and the benefit of science, said Laura Cabrera, a neuroethicist at Pennsylvania State University’s Rock Ethics Institute, who called for the creation of “more rigorous ways” to hold companies operating in the space accountable, transparent and to make them follow similar reporting standards to federally funded trials.



While it isn’t illegal for Neuralink to not have registered its clinical trial, Ienca said not doing so “violates fundamental ethical guidelines for biomedical research”—notably the Declaration of Helsinki, a cornerstone statement of ethical principles for medical research involving humans—adding that Neuralink hasn’t communicated setting up any internal ethics board or establishing its own code of ethics and has not engaged in any major activities from policy organizations working in the space like the OECD.



Neuralink did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Ienca accused Neuralink of endangering the entire field of neurotechnology over its opacity and failure to outline its position on important ethical and social issues related to its work while charging ahead with human research. “If you decide to play with fire in a house, you increase the risk threshold not only of yourself but of the whole house,” he said. “My fear is that Neuralink&#8217;s disregard for the ethical aspects of their technology may cause a backfire effect for the entire neurotechnology community.” Ienca warned the potential backlash could slow down the development of a technological innovation that could help millions of people with neuropsychiatric disorders and mental illness, many of whom cannot be cured or even treated effectively with current technology. Given the stakes, “we cannot afford a “Cambridge Analytica” scandal involving the human brain,” Ienca said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



Neuralink secured&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/09/19/elon-musks-neuralink-wants-volunteers-for-first-human-trial-of-its-brain-implant-chip/">permission</a>&nbsp;in September to recruit patients to test its implantable brain device’s ability to help people with paralysis regain lost functions by controlling computers with their thoughts. Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2024/01/30/elon-musk-teases-first-neuralink-products-after-company-implants-first-brain-chip-in-human/?sh=f3489562ac39">announced</a>&nbsp;the first patient had received the implant in January and last week&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2024/02/20/elon-musk-says-neuralinks-first-brain-chip-patient-can-control-computer-mouse-by-thought/?sh=e072a8d298e2">said</a>&nbsp;they appeared to have made a full recovery and could move a mouse around a screen “just by thinking.” The Tesla billionaire delivered both updates through informal posts on X, the social media platform Musk controversially acquired as Twitter in 2022. Musk has teased that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2024/01/30/elon-musk-teases-first-neuralink-products-after-company-implants-first-brain-chip-in-human/">Neuralink’s first products</a>&nbsp;will include “Telepathy,” which would allow users to control a phone or computer “just by thinking,” as well as features that could restore sight to blind people. Musk has also been open on his long term aims for Neuralink and hopes the technology will be used more widely to enhance memory and elevate intelligence and ultimately acting as a foil to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/09/21/elon-musk-says-neuralink-could-slash-risk-from-ai-as-firm-prepares-for-first-human-trials/?sh=300741eb2956">risks of artificial intelligence</a>. The company has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-neuralink-faces-federal-probe-employee-backlash-over-animal-tests-2022-12-05/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">criticized</a>&nbsp;over its use of animals in experiments and questions have been raised over the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neuralink-elon-musk-animal-testing-conflict-of-interest-researcher-says-2023-5?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">independence</a>&nbsp;of a regulatory board governing its animal research. The company has denied any wrongdoing and&nbsp;<a href="https://neuralink.com/blog/neuralink-s-commitment-to-animal-welfare/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stressed</a>&nbsp;it is “committed to working with animals in the most humane and ethical way possible.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



In line with other experts Forbes spoke to, Columbia&nbsp;<a href="https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/need-protect-data-our-brains" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">neurobiologist</a>&nbsp;Rafael Yuste said the announcement of Neuralink’s progress is “not news.” It is only reported as such because “a company associated with Elon Musk” is doing it,” he said, pointing to decades of research and numerous&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/06/05/elon-musks-neuralink-wants-to-put-chips-in-our-brains---how-it-works-and-who-else-is-doing-it/?sh=d573533babb9">other companies operating&nbsp;</a>in the neurotech field. Yuste said he had “zero concerns” over Neuralink’s latest experiment. It involves a medical device that “has to be approved by the FDA” and “the data collected are protected with HIPAA,” he explained, referring to the series of federal laws governing protected health information. “I welcome anyone who wants to develop medical devices to help patients,” he said. Cabrera expressed a similar sentiment and said it’s unlikely we will need new rights to govern the medical uses of neurotechnology as these should already be well covered by existing regulation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



While medical uses of neurotechnology may be well covered by existing regulation, Yuste warned “commercial neurotechnology is completely unregulated.” The growing sector—which includes non-implantable tech like external sensors—raises a host of social, legal and ethical&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24078512/brain-tech-privacy-rights-neurorights-colorado-yuste" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">questions</a>&nbsp;surrounding privacy, access and freedom of thought, demands a framework of rights to govern neurotechnology and protect human rights from potential abuse or misuse from it (Yuste and others call this framework “<a href="https://neurorightsfoundation.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">neurorights</a>”). The use, and potential exploitation, of the vast amounts of brain data generated from implants and sensors is of particular concern, experts warned. Neuralink stands out as a neurotech company that such considerations could apply to, although this would still be a long way in the future. “Neuralink is the only neurotechnology company, to my knowledge, that has publicly confessed that their long-term goal is the development of implantable neurotechnology for human enhancement,” Ienca said. In principle, Ienca said there’s nothing wrong with enhancement—tools that augment or add brain functions like memory or vision for healthy individuals and go beyond natural capabilities—but warned there’s a real risk of creating a “stratified society divided not just by wealth or opportunity, but by cognitive and sensory capabilities.” Johnson, on the other hand, said enhancement “would not change anything.” The wealthy would “have the same advantages and power” as they do now.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-we-don-t-know">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



Experts told Forbes it is unclear what will happen to Neuralink’s human subjects once the clinical trial for the brain implant is over. “When the clinical trial is over, are they on their own?,” Johnson asked, pointing to the many risks involved with the kind of surgery to place an implant, the possibility the device or performance could degrade over time and the fact that some may simply lose access to their implant once the trial is over.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



“Musk’s talk about helping disabled people – giving full body functionality to tetraplegics – is disingenuous and harmful,” Johnson said, asking whether disabled people even want brain implants or to control smartphones with their thoughts. “It fundamentally says that disabled persons are broken and need to be fixed with invasive brain implants,” Johnson said, noting that there is “so much that societies could be doing right now, but are not doing, to improve mobility, and access to jobs and education and decent places to live for disabled persons.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



We <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=1f50a08f7999">estimate</a> Musk to be worth $207 billion. Musk’s fortune makes him the world’s second richest person, behind French luxury goods giant <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/?list=rtb/">Bernard Arnault</a> and ahead of Amazon founder <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?list=rtb/&amp;sh=4587e17d1b23">Jeff Bezos</a>, worth $229.6 billion and $195.7 billion, respectively.

Tesla Officially Opens Gruenheide Gigafactory

Experts Criticize Elon Musk’s Neuralink Over Transparency After Billionaire Says First Brain Implant Works

Most Attractive Youtube Thumbnail (2)

Billionaires List: Africa’s Richest People In 2024

A decision by a Delaware judge late Tuesday afternoon has multibillion-dollar implications regarding Musk’s fortune.



Elon Musk ceded the title of world’s richest person to Frenchman Bernard Arnault of luxury conglomerate LVMH Tuesday evening, after a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2024/01/30/judge-voids-elon-musks-56-billion-pay-package-from-tesla/?sh=7ee4eb102756">Delaware judge</a>&nbsp;voided a hefty package of performance-based Tesla options&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2021/05/06/elon-musk-made-billions-in-2020-every-other-ceo-made-millions/?sh=39b88bdd6f93">awarded to Musk in 2018</a>. Those shares had been worth more than $50 billion.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates that Musk is now worth $184.5 billion. He now trails Arnault (estimated net worth: $210.8 billion) but remains ahead of the world’s third richest person, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($179 billion).



In her ruling, Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick determined that Musk and his co-defendants, Tesla and certain of its board members, failed to prove that the process underlying the award of “the largest potential compensation opportunity ever observed in public markets” was fair due to conflicts of interest and Musk’s “control” over the board. Musk’s options were worth $50.9 billion (net of exercise cost) at Tuesday’s stock market close. Because of the ruling, he won’t be able to exercise or sell them. Given the high level of uncertainty about what comes next–including an appeal of the ruling,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has discounted Musk’s options by 50%, enough to knock his net worth down by $25.5 billion after the decision.



“[The ruling] will certainly be appealed and there is some chance of reversal or a different remedy,” says UCLA law professor Jim Park. “Chancellor McCormick is well regarded and known as careful, so I think there’s a good chance her decision will get some deference from the Delaware Supreme Court. On the other hand, perhaps the Supreme Court will worry that the decision will send a negative message to the business community and will thus reduce the award.”



There is also the possibility that Tesla could just grant Musk another pay package with a more rigorous process designed to withstand legal scrutiny. After all, Tesla shareholders, whose stock has appreciated more than sevenfold since 2018, haven’t exactly celebrated the decision by the Delaware court. Shares of Tesla were trading down 0.8% at 2:30 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday.



“If the pay package is struck down, Musk will demand another — and he&#8217;ll get it,” says Michigan law professor Adam Pritchard. “But [it’s] very hard to say how different that would be from this package.”



Musk had been clamoring for even more Tesla shares prior to the Delaware decision. In an X post on January 15 he wrote, “I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI &amp; robotics without having ~25% voting control.” If upheld on appeal, the judge&#8217;s decision to void Musk&#8217;s options pay package would drop his stake in Tesla from 22% to 13%.

GERMANY-AUTOMOBILE-TESLA-MUSK

Elon Musk No Longer World’s Richest After Judge Voids $51 Billion Pay Package

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



As shares of Tesla&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sank</a>&nbsp;13% Thursday, a day after the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_2Z-AEtdAg&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2F&amp;source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&amp;feature=emb_title" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;missed estimates in its fourth-quarter earnings, the net worth of its centibillionare CEO Elon Musk dropped by more than $18 billion, though he remains the richest person in the world.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Tesla stock sank 13.2% to 180.38 on Thursday, with Musk losing $18.8 billion.



The decline followed the company’s Wednesday fourth-quarter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_2Z-AEtdAg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">earning report</a>&nbsp;that indicated it&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-stock-plunges-12-as-ev-maker-warns-production-growth-will-be-notably-lower-than-2023-143454161.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">missed several estimates</a>—including that revenue for the quarter was $25.17 billion, compared to an estimated $25.87 billion.



Stocks for fellow American electric car makers&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RIVN?p=RIVN&amp;ncid=yahooproperties_stockrecom_g40boan2td8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rivian</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/LCID?p=LCID&amp;ncid=yahooproperties_stockrecom_g40boan2td8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lucid</a>&nbsp;also dropped 1% and 6%, respectively, on Thursday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



Musk lost $18.8 billion Thursday, a more than $17 billion larger decline than any other billionaire, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#62bf5a623d78">Forbes calculations</a>. Musk, who owns about 21% of Tesla, remains the world’s wealthiest person with an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?listuri=rtb&amp;sh=430430527999">estimated net worth</a>&nbsp;of $203.6 billion, still roughly $20 billion more than LVMH’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/?sh=5900e1fb66fa">Bernard Arnault</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$320 billion. That’s how much Musk was worth in November 2021, first person in history to obtain such a net worth and also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2022/10/21/elon-musks-fortune-has-fallen-by-more-than-100-billion-in-less-than-a-year/?sh=691a348a3ea4">his peak fortune</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2024/01/25/tesla-stock-price-down-25-in-2024-time-to-take-your-profits/?sh=5451e31a701a">With Tesla Stock Down 25% In 2024, It’s Time To Take Your Profits</a> (Forbes)

Elon Musk’s Net Worth Drops $18 Billion As Tesla Stock Slides

The Top 10 Richest People In The World (January 2024)

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that created ChatGPT, is in discussions about a potential share sale that would value it at $80 to $90 billion,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-seeks-new-valuation-of-up-to-90-billion-in-sale-of-existing-shares-ed6229e0?mod=e2tw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal—about three times what it was valued in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/01/05/chatgpt-creator-openai-discussing-offer-valuing-company-at-29-billion-report-says/?sh=62fa761311e0">January</a>, as the AI race heats up.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



It’s expected that the deal will let employees sell their shares, instead of OpenAI issuing new ones, the&nbsp;Journal&nbsp;reported, citing multiple unnamed sources.



A valuation of $80 or $90 billion would make OpenAI—which is privately held—one of the highest valued startups, joining the ranks of TikTok owner ByteDance and SpaceX and surpassing companies like Shein and Canva.



OpenAI is positioned to earn more than $1 billion in revenue over the next year by selling access to a higher-quality version of ChatGPT and the technology behind it, Reuters&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-track-generate-more-than-1-bln-revenue-over-12-months-information-2023-08-29/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;last month.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



OpenAI is backed largely by Microsoft, which owns 49% of the company, according to the&nbsp;Journal. Microsoft&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/23/chatgpt-parent-open-ai-gets-game-changing-multibillion-dollar-boost-from-microsoft/?sh=4173fcd63c0c">expanded</a>&nbsp;its investment earlier this year when it put billions more into OpenAI, and it has begun integrating the company’s AI technology into its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/technology/microsoft-bing-openai-artificial-intelligence.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bing search engine</a>&nbsp;in a bid to compete with Google.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



ChatGPT—OpenAI’s chief product—launched last November and quickly became one of the most popular artificial intelligence programs. Within a week of its launch, the program attracted one million signed-up users who were able to use it for free while the product was in a “research preview” phase. People can still use ChatGPT for free, but OpenAI also offers ChatGPT+ for a $20 per month subscription fee. Beyond normal access to ChatGPT, subscribers get faster response times, are able to use the service even during peak times and get priority access to new features, according to its&nbsp;<a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a>.



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



OpenAI backer Microsoft isn’t the only major tech company to invest in artificial intelligence. Google <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/03/21/google-releases-bard-ai-chatbot-amid-competition-with-chatgpt/?sh=769740e832b7">launched</a> its Bard AI chatbot earlier this year, and has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/09/19/google-expands-ai-chatbot-bard-to-apps-like-gmail-drive-and-youtube/?sh=594736544905">begun integrating it</a> into services like Gmail and YouTube, while Amazon announced a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/09/25/amazon-plans-to-invest-up-to-4-billion-in-ai-startup-anthropic/?sh=7408d8aa30e0">$4 billion investment</a> in AI startup Anthropic on Monday.

In this photo illustration a Open AI logo is displayed on a

OpenAI Could Reach Massive $90 Billion Valuation With New Share Sales, Report Says

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Apple and Nvidia stocks tanked for the second consecutive trading session Thursday, a rare down stretch for the Silicon Valley titans this year fueled by concerns about each of their explosive sales.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Apple shares slipped 3.4% by 2:25 p.m. Eastern time after Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-07/china-plans-to-expand-iphone-ban-to-some-state-backed-firms-in-blow-to-apple?srnd=premium" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;China is considering banning iPhone usage among some government workers and employees at state-owned corporations, casting doubt on Apple’s strength in the country which accounts for roughly a fifth of its sales.



The slide comes a day after Apple shed 3.6% – its 6.9% dip since Tuesday marks the steepest two-day loss for the world’s most valuable company since November.



Nvidia shares also dropped about 3% Thursday, bringing its two-day loss to 5.5% as the S&amp;P 500’s best-performer of 2023 suffered a rare tumble.



The artificial intelligence leader’s stock slump came as a dubious conspiracy theory&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JesseCohenInv/status/1699307464619876691" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proliferated&nbsp;</a>on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, suggesting that Nvidia has artificially inflated revenue in its AI segment by lying about its sales to CoreWeave, a Nvidia-backed cloud computing startup&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-30/coreweave-said-to-seek-stake-sale-at-up-to-8-billion-valuation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;valued at about $8 billion.



That theory is “nonsense,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote in a Thursday note to clients he “very grudgingly” sent out, encouraging investors to not get “your investment thesis from Twitter randos.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$250 billion. That’s how much market capitalization Apple and Nvidia shed over the last two days.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Apple and Nvidia are two of the seven tech stocks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/10/these-7-tech-stocks-command-almost-90-of-the-sp-500s-gains-signaling-market-rally-may-not-be-so-healthy/?sh=65e0aafc65d5">accounting for</a>&nbsp;a large majority of major stock indexes’ gains this year, leading to lingering questions about the depth of the strong market (Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Tesla round out the super seven). Both Apple and Nvidia set all-time high share prices this year, but on far different trajectories. Apple rode a steady 42% gain this year, just ahead with the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s 32% rise, thanks to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/05/04/apple-beats-quarterly-profit-sales-estimates-despite-interest-rate-headwinds/?sh=77f139f03637">solid</a>&nbsp;5% and 6% earnings beats during the first and second quarters, respectively, while Nvidia more than tripled in share price due to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/08/23/nvidia-earnings-stock-soars-as-ai-giant-again-smashes-quarterly-expectations/">exploding</a>&nbsp;expectations about its AI business, which grew by 141% just last quarter.



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“The Nasdaq is sinking as one bad Apple spoils a bunch of mega-cap tech stocks,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketpulse.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oanda</a>&nbsp;analyst Edward Moya wrote Thursday. The index is down 2% over the last two days, steeper than the S&amp;P 500’s 1% loss.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/tosv2.html?vid=&amp;uuid=14d8c1fa-4dad-11ee-bf85-ff6800d7a7ae&amp;url=L25ld3MvYXJ0aWNsZXMvMjAyMy0wOS0wNy9jaGluYS1wbGFucy10by1leHBhbmQtaXBob25lLWJhbi10by1zb21lLXN0YXRlLWJhY2tlZC1maXJtcy1pbi1ibG93LXRvLWFwcGxlP3NybmQ9cHJlbWl1bQ==" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BLOOMBERGBloomberg</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/08/23/nvidia-earnings-stock-soars-as-ai-giant-again-smashes-quarterly-expectations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MORE FROM FORBESNvidia Earnings: Stock Soars As AI Giant Again Smashes Quarterly ExpectationsBy&nbsp;Derek Saul</a>



<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23824661/coreweave-nvidia-debt-gpu-ai-chips-collateral" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">THE VERGEHow to get your startup a loan with one easy computer part</a>

Apple Ahead Of The IPhone 15 Launch

Apple And Nvidia’s Losses This Week Hit $250 Billion

Alessandro Rosano’s contrarian playbook for the comfort-footwear company: no financing and minimal marketing. It worked so well he sold to Crocs for $2.5 billion.



Two years ago, Brown’s Shoe Fit Co.’s desperation to stock enough HeyDude shoes to meet the demand reached frenzied levels. The buyers for the 73-store Midwestern chain would get a status report in the morning and try to place a large order. “We would get one-fourth or one-half of what we put in for,” says Adam Smith, senior manager for Brown’s and a former store manager in Jacksonville, Illinois. “The whole nation was trying to get them.”



HeyDude founder Alessandro Rosano, an Italian entrepreneur living in Hong Kong, had tried his hand at other businesses before. But with HeyDude, which makes comfortable slip-on loafers with a so-ugly-they’re-cute look, he hit the jackpot. With minimal investment and almost no marketing, revenue took off, reaching $581 million in 2021, with net profit of $175 million. That December, Rosano agreed to sell the brand to Crocs, the $6.2 billion (market cap) firm whose own ugly-cute rubber clogs are a worldwide phenomenon, for $2.5 billion in cash and stock.



With that deal, Rosano became a billionaire, worth $1.4 billion by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates. His business partner and American distributor Daniele Guidi also made a fortune, worth some $650 million after tax by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates, after bringing in $787 million in cash from the deal, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.



Rosano declined to speak with Forbes, and Guidi didn’t respond to requests for comment. But what the two men were able to build, largely under the radar, is an unlikely success. It stands in stark contrast to many of the direct-to-consumer brands that received lavish amounts of funding and attention from social media during the boom years while failing to become viable businesses. Comfort shoe maker Allbirds, once the darling of Silicon Valley, for example, has seen its market cap collapse from a peak of more than $4 billion after its 2021 initial public offering to just $199 million today as annual sales failed to top $300 million and losses piled up.



Now Rosano, a strategic advisor to the brand under Crocs following the acquisition, has set up a family office to invest his money and work on philanthropy. Crocs is using the brand, which reached $1.1 billion in sales in the latest 12-month period, to add spice to its broader business.



Comfort shoes are having a moment. Crocs, with total sales of $3.6 billion in 2022, has said it hopes to reach $5 billion in sales for its flagship brand by 2026. HeyDude looks poised to help the company soar past that. In 2022, HeyDude was the single fastest growing brand at retail, according to consumer research firm Circana (formerly NPD).



“When we first bought it, we wanted to be clear to people that this was a scale business,” Crocs CEO Andrew Rees tells&nbsp;Forbes. “They hadn’t heard of it, and didn’t know what it was. We put out the $1 billion target, which we knew we could blow past, and we’ve gotten to that easily.”



Rosano, who is in his mid-50s, was a shoe dude long before he came up with HeyDude. He grew up in Tuscany, and studied at Commercio Estero, Pistoia, from 1982 to 1987, though he never received a university degree, according to his LinkedIn profile. Pistoia, a medieval Italian city that’s popular with tourists, is less than 30 miles from Florence, home to Ferragamo and Gucci, in a region known for luxury goods and footwear.



Rosano, who started designing shoes at age 18, had tried other businesses before HeyDude, and had a shoe distributor called Fratelli Diversi. On his LinkedIn profile, where he has just 164 connections, he describes his approach to that company as “acting in a fair and reasonable way, to the people and the environment. Charity acts are also a duty.”



Rosano cofounded a company with Guidi and a third person to make wooden watches called WeWood. Wooden watches are a tough business, and the company was subject to unfair competition litigation in 2011 from a now-defunct watchmaker called Vestal International. Rosano also came up with an idea for wooden clogs with springs in their heels that sold under the name Baldo. None of his early businesses found notable success.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“If you were to lay out the playbook that they followed and present it to a series of business executives, they would say there’s no way that this would succeed.”Crocs CEO Andrew Rees
</blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



He’d been working in these various businesses for more than 20 years when he founded HeyDude in 2008. In a&nbsp;<a href="https://fotoshoemagazine.com/hey-dude-comfort-has-an-iconic-style/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2020 interview with Fotoshoe magazine</a>, an Italian industry publication, Rosano’s sister Elena De Martini, who was then CEO of Fratelli Diversi, described how Rosano returned from a trip to China and realized that a modern shoe that was as comfortable as a slipper didn’t exist — and decided to create one.



The shoes Rosano developed, starting with the Wally for men, were lightweight, with elastic laces that didn’t require fastening, and affordable, at around $60 a pair. “The result is perfectly constructed footwear, which is innovative, ultra-light and casual, but with style,” De Martini told&nbsp;Fotoshoe.&nbsp;The shoes were designed in Italy, but the business was headquartered in Hong Kong, where Rosano lives, with production at contract factories in China.



Rosano “is a student,” Crocs CEO Rees says. “He’s a serial entrepreneur. He had a number of entrepreneurial businesses before this that had not been successful. He was looking to improve his chances of success and he admired [Crocs’] focus on simplicity and comfort.”



Though many Italian shoemakers create beautiful shoes for Europeans, Rosano was going for something more mainstream. Not wanting to name the brand after himself as many Italian shoe entrepreneurs would, he came up with HeyDude for its laid-back California vibe, says Rick Blackshaw, who became president of the brand under Crocs. “But all his friends in Italy would call it ‘ey du-day,’” Blackshaw says.



In 2010, Guidi, who has a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Pisa and runs a consulting and marketing firm called Lever Your Business, joined Rosano to open U.S. operations. The shoes took off, and HeyDude added a woman’s model known as the Wendy, a water shoe and a variety of eco-friendly designs. The shoes were prototypically American looking, easy to wear — and looked like nothing else on the market. Almost all the sales came from the U.S. market, rather than from Europe.



HeyDude sales soared from $20 million in 2018 to&nbsp;<a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/133460125/files/doc_presentations/2022/01/10/ICR-Presentation-vF.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$191 million in 2020,</a>&nbsp;according to financials that Crocs shared with investors at the 2022 ICR conference. During the pandemic, as consumers stayed home wearing yoga pants and comfort shoes, the brand fit right in. Its success came despite having no marketing to speak of other than paid search and a commission-based sales team. “It was built on a shoestring,” says Crocs’ Rees.



The brand took off by word of mouth. “In many senses, it’s a pretty remarkable story,” Rees says. “If you were to lay out the playbook that they followed and present it to a set of business executives, they would say there’s no way that this would succeed.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
With comfort shoes having a moment, the brand’s sales soared from $20 million in 2018 to $581 million in 2021.
</blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Footwear analysts and industry watchers were blindsided. “It kind of caught a lot of the industry players by surprise,” says Beth Goldstein, a footwear analyst at Circana. “This brand came up and was all of a sudden having these huge growth rates and buzz. It piqued everyone’s interest.”



Brown’s became one of the earliest larger retailers to stock it after its Muskogee, Oklahoma store manager learned about the brand at a 2012 trade show in Las Vegas. The Buckle, a Kearney, Nebraska-based retail chain with 440 stores, also began carrying HeyDude before the shoe company’s major expansion, in 2019.



“We were known as the top HeyDude retailer,” says Brown’s Smith. “In the pandemic, we didn’t know if we could get products, so we were ordering them by the pallet.” With customers sometimes buying five pairs at a time, however much Brown’s could get its hands on sold out fast. Facebook groups sprung up where people could compare notes, and buy, sell and trade their shoes.



“It was limited quantity and a lot of fun styles and colors, and the price was right,” Smith says. “The customer wanted them so bad it almost didn’t matter what the color was. It was crazy, that’s probably the best way to put it.”



Two days before Christmas 2021, Crocs agreed to buy HeyDude for $2.5 billion, most of it in cash and a smaller amount in stock. Wall Street was not impressed. The shoes that were selling out in the Midwest were scarce on the coasts, where many of the analysts and investors live, and the shoes lacked the cache of hot new sneaker brands like Hoka and On.



“To be honest, when they announced the acquisition, I had never heard of the brand,” says Tom Nikic, a Wedbush analyst, who follows Crocs and has been covering the footwear industry for more than a decade. “It was very much a shock to the system. I think those of us in the New York, Wall Street bubble, we didn’t realize what was happening with the brand.”



Rosano had clearly timed the market well, putting the brand up for sale as it was growing fast and demand for comfort shoes was at a high. Allbirds had gone public in November 2021 gaining a $4.1 billion valuation, making it worth 15 times its sales for that year despite being in the red. By contrast, HeyDude, which was already profitable on higher sales, seemed like a bargain. Crocs CEO Rees says that he’d been following HeyDude for a few years by the time he learned it was on the market and figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to turn it into a $1 billion brand under the Crocs umbrella.



“It was a tightly managed sale process,” Rees says. “They were trying to sell to private equity at that point. We got introduced to the founder and managed to get ourselves inserted into the sales process. At that point, we also started to learn about the compelling financials. It wasn’t completely obvious because they were private, and because they weren’t selling in the traditional channels it wasn’t showing up in the typical data sets.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
Rosano had a number of businesses before HeyDude, including a wooden watch startup and a brand of clogs with springs in their heels. None found notable success.
</blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



With Covid restrictions in place, Rees and Rosano couldn’t meet in person. But Rees figured he didn’t need to meet the HeyDude management team since he planned to replace them. He saw similarities with Crocs: both were polarizing brands that a lot of consumers loved. “I think we got a pretty good deal,” he says. “We weren’t daunted by the large-dollar price tag.”



HeyDude’s strategy of focusing on one style of comfort shoe at a mass-market price was a playbook familiar to Crocs. “Alessandro was really clear that he had modeled a lot of his company on Crocs,” Rees says. “He had been studying Crocs and taking our strategies and incorporating them.”



Crocs also knew what Wall Street didn’t at first: Rosano, helped by Guidi’s U.S. distribution, had built a significant and profitable brand with minimal investment. Though those who know him say that Rosano had been strategic in how he’d built the brand, from the outside it appeared to have burst onto the scene almost by chance.



“We’ve become somewhat acclimated to these newer upstart brands being unprofitable and burning through cash,” analyst Nikic says. “This isn’t Allbirds. This isn’t a money-losing, cash-burning business. It’s actually a very highly profitable company.” Nikic compares the brand’s fast growth to Crocs itself, as well as to Ugg, which built its business on one style of comfort boots.



Since acquiring HeyDude, Crocs has hired Blackshaw, who previously ran Sperry and Keds, as its new brand president. It’s introduced new styles, including sneakers, and is setting up collaborations to give it more buzz. It’s also rejiggering its distribution, expanding to major retailers like Shoe Carnival, Famous Footwear and Academy Sports, and building a new distribution center in Las Vegas to handle its expansion.



The acquisition hasn’t been without a few snags. In the second quarter, HeyDude took a hit — with modest 3% growth as its wholesale revenue dropped 8% year-over-year — and Crocs cut its guidance for the brand for the year from mid-20% growth to between 14% and 18%. One problem: as Crocs cut smaller distributors set up by Rosano and Guidi before the acquisition, some dumped their inventory at lowball prices on Amazon. Wedbush analyst Nikic figures that the problems with gray-market goods should wind down in the coming months once the legacy distributors’ inventory is gone. In its earnings call, Crocs pointed to HeyDude’s 30% increase in direct-to-consumer revenues as a sign of the brand’s strength while it dealt with the “pipeline fill” issues in the wholesale channel. Crocs shares are down 19%, at a recent $100, since the deal was announced.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
Crocs hopes to make HeyDude as ubiquitous as its original ugly-cute rubber clogs, helped by new distribution and marketing muscle.
</blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Marketing muscle and collaborations helped Crocs push its flagship brand, and it intends to do the same with HeyDude. Blackshaw says that the company will “overinvest,” noting it could spend up to 8% of total sales on marketing. Part of the plan: connect with consumers on TikTok and Meta, helped by partnerships with influencers and athletes. A collaboration with hunting brand Mossy Oak launched in June, another with YouTube sports and comedy group Dude Perfect (whose channel has 60 million subscribers) followed in August and a college licensing deal is in the works for this fall. The company has plans for more collaborations, including with&nbsp;Yellowstone,&nbsp;The Big Lebowski, a major beer brand and some toy brands. “It’s a lot of the same playbook that Crocs brought to bear,” Blackshaw says.



Whether the brand will take off on the coasts as it has in the middle of the country remains to be seen. Another risk for HeyDude as it expands is oversaturation. As analyst Goldstein notes, Crocs will need to strike the right balance between growth and introducing new styles that risk cannibalizing its core business. “They almost invented a category,” she says. As the brand expands into other types of shoes, “they need to make their proposition clear,” she says. “Why is a HeyDude sneaker better than anyone else’s casual sneaker?”



Meanwhile, Rosano has his fortune to invest and give away. While venture-backed startups stumble, HeyDude harkens back to an older way of building a company on a smart idea and a shoestring. Perhaps, like comfort shoes, it’s time for that to come back into style.

F4Ye2L5WIAAYHWb

How The HeyDude Guy Became A Billionaire Selling Ugly Shoes

With Roger Federer following Williams into retirement and Rafael Nadal winding down his career, opportunities abound for young players—on and off the court.



When Holger Rune&nbsp;started watching Rafael Nadal, he was about 7, maybe 8, growing up in Denmark and worshiping the Spanish tennis legend for what Rune calls his “fighting spirit.” Then he started looking up to Roger Federer, for his elegance and his transition game coming to the net.



“If I was going to idolize them, I was trying to idolize them all the way. So I wore the same clothes; I played with the same racket,” Rune tells&nbsp;Forbes, confirming that the mimicry extended to wearing Federer’s signature bandana. “I even tried the one-handed backhand, but luckily my coach told me to stick to your own tennis.”



Rune’s tennis has taken him pretty far—onto practice courts with both Nadal and Federer and into competitive matches against another player he has long admired, world No. 2 Novak Djokovic, whom Rune has actually beaten in two of their three meetings. His game has also sent the 20-year-old skyrocketing to No. 4 in the world rankings, from outside the top 100 at the start of 2022.



And he is not tennis’ only precocious player. A fellow 20-year-old, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, sits atop the ATP Tour’s rankings while 22-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy and 24-year-old Casper Ruud from Norway are seen as real contenders to win a Grand Slam, whether at this year’s U.S. Open or going forward.



On the women’s side, Polish phenom Iga Swiatek is No. 1 and owns four major titles at age 22, and American Coco Gauff is a 19-year-old rising star who reached the French Open final last year and won the two biggest tournaments of her career this month.



To be sure, no one—whether tournament organizers or broadcast executives or sponsors—is racing to chase Federer, who retired last year, or Nadal, who has said 2024 will likely be his final season, out of the sport. And while Djokovic is 36 and less than a year younger than Nadal, he continues to play at the highest level, winning titles at this year’s Australian Open and French Open and losing to Alcaraz in a thrilling five-set final at Wimbledon. Still, there is a recognition that tennis tends to go through cycles of talent—just as Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi ruled the era before the Big Three—and there is a growing belief that a new generation is ready to fill the void, on and off the court.



“For sure, it’s not the worst time to be in tennis,” Rune says with a smile.



He and his fellow prodigies have quite the tennis shoes to fill. Djokovic has won a record 23 major singles titles, followed by Nadal with 22 and Federer with 20—no other man has won more than 14 (Sampras). Add it all up, and the Big Three have captured 65 of a possible 80 Slams dating to Federer’s first title at Wimbledon in 2003. Their dominance has been so absolute for so long that tennis pundits speak of a “lost generation,” and the numbers back that up: Players younger than Djokovic have won a combined six Grand Slam titles since Federer exploded on the scene, with four of them coming in the last three years (Dominic Thiem in 2020, Daniil Medvedev in 2021 and Alcaraz in 2022 and 2023).



And while she did not have as much company at the top of the sport, Serena Williams, who like Federer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2022/08/09/serena-williams-tennis-retirement-net-worth-earnings/">announced her retirement</a>&nbsp;last year before backtracking somewhat in subsequent interviews, herself piled up 23 major singles titles, a women’s record for tennis’ Open Era.



The four tennis legends have an equally imposing legacy off the court. A mainstay near the top of&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;annual list of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/athletes/">world’s highest-paid athletes</a>, the 42-year-old Federer is one of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2022/06/12/billion-dollar-ballers-these-athletes-tiger-woods-lebron-james-federer-messi-ronaldo-mayweather-have-earned-more-than-1-billion-apiece/">just seven athletes</a>&nbsp;with career pre-tax earnings over $1 billion, having cultivated a sponsor portfolio filled nearly top to bottom with premium brands, including Rolex, LVMH and NetJets. “Novak, he tried to be ahead in technology, and Nadal, he just tried to be a little bit different,” Lisa Delpy Neirotti, associate professor of sports management at George Washington University, notes of two players who have crossed $500 million in career earnings. Meanwhile, Williams, who made an estimated $440 million across her career, was a trailblazer among athletes as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/06/03/inside-serena-williams-plan-to-ace-venture-investing/">venture investor</a>&nbsp;and a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2022/12/08/serena-williams-feels-your-pain/">startup founder</a>, and transcended the sport into mainstream pop culture, appearing in two Super Bowl commercials in 2023 alone.



Alessandro Barel Di Sant Albano, who represents Gauff at Team8 and has worked with Federer, says Williams and the Big Three “have been the GOATs that have taken the traditional TV-watching fan into thinking about athletes as brands. They’re the pioneers that have taken us to a new way of looking at tennis as more of an entertainment platform, and more than just a sport.”



And all of that is setting aside the societal changes of the last 20 years, starting with the rise of social media. The upshot: The players coming of age today are entering a dramatically different, and increasingly global, sponsorship market, with more brands looking to spend more money on tennis than ever before.



The players have already started to take advantage of sponsorship opportunities, with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2023/08/25/the-worlds-highest-paid-tennis-players-2023/">eight of the sport’s ten highest-paid</a>&nbsp;now under 30. Shoe and apparel companies typically come calling first—often by age 13, Delpy Neirotti notes—but other brands have also seen “a unique opportunity to align themselves with someone who can carry the torch,” says Marijn Bal, Ruud’s agent at IMG. “They know that if they get in early, they can get a lot of bang for their buck.”



So what will it take for a young player to reach the heights that Federer did? It starts with winning, which brings more attention from marketers and can also come with a direct payoff because endorsement deals often carry bonuses—sometimes in the seven figures—for climbing up the rankings or winning Grand Slams. For instance, Emma Raducanu raked in $18 million from endorsements and appearances in 2022, after winning the 2021 U.S. Open as a virtual unknown, and Naomi Osaka’s four major titles helped her eclipse Williams’ earnings record for a female athlete with at least $50 million off the court in both 2021 and 2022.



But “you need continued dominance—you can’t be dominant for just a few months, or a couple of years,” adds John Tobias, an agent at GSE Worldwide. “And it’s also about staying healthy in a really physically demanding sport—basically an 11-month-a-year sport that requires an insane amount of travel, an insane amount of dealing with time zones. Then you have to have the right personality and the right, we say,&nbsp;passport—or you come from the right country—and the ability to communicate with people on a global scale.”



Authenticity remains another important factor, which Bal says starts with “don’t endorse Coca-Cola when you’re drinking Pepsi” but extends to aligning with brands that fit the image you’re trying to cultivate for yourself—the way that Federer made himself synonymous with luxury and Nadal cast himself as a rebel.



In addition, “social responsibility and cause marketing are more important now than they ever were before,” says Joe Favorito, a veteran marketing consultant and former executive with the WTA Tour and the U.S. Tennis Association. While the great Arthur Ashe was once questioned for talking about social issues, Osaka’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement and her statements about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2021/06/02/naomi-osaka-is-the-highest-paid-female-athlete-ever-and-her-french-open-exit-may-actually-help-her/">mental health</a>&nbsp;have made her even more valuable for brands, Favorito says.



Even with all of those boxes checked, there is no guarantee anyone will follow Federer to $1 billion in earnings. Players have to be willing to commit to their off-court endeavors, even amid the grind of the tennis schedule—and the teenaged Gauff, for instance, is taking a slow and steady approach as she develops as a player and a person. The 25-year-old Osaka, meanwhile, was once pegged as a perennial champion but has taken an unexpected detour over the last couple of years because of injuries and a recent pregnancy. “The story arc is never that simple because that’s real life,” says Stuart Duguid, who represents Osaka at Evolve, the talent agency they cofounded. “Life happens.”



Still, the number of talented players hitting their primes at once means exciting times ahead for the sport—and, presumably, for their wealth advisors.



“They all push each other, and they’re all friendly with each other,” Bal says. “[Ruud] got to Toronto early—he practiced with Medvedev, with Rune and with Sinner three consecutive days. So these guys are not shy, they’re playing with each other, they’re pushing each other, and it’s great for the sport.”

Western & Southern Open – Day 8

Tennis’ Big 3 And Serena Won 88 Majors And Made $2.5 Billion. A New Generation Is Ready For Their Shot.

<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">Topline</h3>



Elon Musk claimed Wednesday X, formerly known as Twitter, could one day become a trillion dollar company, a stellar valuation that few companies have achieved, despite the major turmoil arising since the billionaire took the helm last October.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



One of Musk’s first moves after acquiring Twitter was to immediately lay off most of the company’s workforce—staff numbers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/07/12/twitter-and-elon-musk-face-500-million-lawsuit-for-allegedly-reusing-severance-for-fired-employees/">reportedly</a>&nbsp;fell from more than 7,500 to around 1,300—raising concerns the firm would not have enough staff to properly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/technology/twitter-outages-elon-musk.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">maintain</a>&nbsp;the platform,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/11/24/twitter-reportedly-leaves-brussels-europes-regulatory-hub-amid-concerns-about-musks-content-moderation-plans/">moderate content or comply</a>&nbsp;with regulatory requirements.



The abrupt nature of the layoffs and how they were handled have triggered numerous lawsuits from former employees that could end up&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/07/12/twitter-and-elon-musk-face-500-million-lawsuit-for-allegedly-reusing-severance-for-fired-employees/?sh=89bfd311d91c">costing</a>&nbsp;the platform hundreds of millions of dollars.



Unpopular policy changes, notably easing content moderation, implementing an&nbsp;<a href="https://mashable.com/article/half-of-twitter-blue-earliest-subscribers-no-longer-subscribed" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unpopular paid subscription</a>&nbsp;and overhauling the identity verification system, spooked users and sparked chaos when impersonators abused the new system, with advertising revenue&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-traffic-falls-under-elon-musk-threads-mastodon-bluesky-competition/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plunging</a>&nbsp;as companies pulled ads.



Lawsuits from former staff are just a small fraction of X’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/07/12/twitter-troubles-here-are-all-the-big-legal-hurdles-twitters-faced-since-elon-musks-takeover/">legal woes</a>, which include numerous&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/07/03/twitter-faces-lawsuit-over-unpaid-office-fees-again/?sh=2e30ea122613">reports</a>&nbsp;of unpaid office bills, a major copyright lawsuit for letting users post video and audio using copyrighted&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/06/14/twitter-sued-for-250-million-by-music-publishers-claiming-copyright-infringement/?sh=69657fb72d14">music</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a8281bf4-bd83-42ac-875f-9061ee1b357b" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potential brushes with regulators&nbsp;</a>failing to curb the spread of illegal content online and not paying&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/08/03/twitter-gets-sued-for-allegedly-not-complying-with-french-law-that-requires-it-to-pay-news-publishers/">news publishers for content</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/08/04/twitter-hq-landlord-paid-san-francisco-over-4000-in-fees-after-musks-team-installed-x-sign-on-roof/">fees</a>&nbsp;for installing a giant illuminated “X” sign on the roof of the company’s headquarters.



Tech issues have also plagued the platform since Musk’s arrival, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23553161/third-party-twitter-clients-apps-outage-twitterific-tweetbot" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unexplained</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/twitter-reports-glitches-outages-1235667776/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outages</a>, privacy&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/03/twitter-circle-glitches-have-users-worried-about-privacy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">glitches</a>, randomly&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/01/twitter-is-randomly-logging-out-users-youre-welcome/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">logging</a>&nbsp;out users,&nbsp;<a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/twitter-bug-marks-regular-users-as-spambots-restricting-their-accounts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">restrictions</a>&nbsp;on what users can see and throttling the number of posts users could see in a day.



X is also fending off a number of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/07/05/leaving-elon-musks-twitter-here-are-some-alternatives-from-meta-threads-to-mastodon-to-bluesky/">rivals</a>&nbsp;vying for Twitter’s spot, including Bluesky and Spill, headed by&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/13/tech/twitter-competitors/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">former employees</a>&nbsp;and notably Meta’s long awaited&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/07/04/metas-twitter-rival-threads-will-launch-thursday-as-chaos-continues-on-elon-musks-platform/">Threads</a>, which became the<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/07/10/with-100-million-users-in-five-days-threads-is-the-fastest-growing-app-in-history/">&nbsp;fastest growing app i</a>n history days after launching but has since seen a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/07/28/zuckerberg-implies-less-than-half-of-threads-users-have-stuck-around/?sh=678c145489cd">slump</a>&nbsp;in users.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



A trillion dollar market cap for X “is not out of the question,” Musk said in a post on Wednesday. It is not the first time the billionaire has made such a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/23/musk-tesla-could-be-trillion-dollar-company-and-other-predictions.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prediction</a>&nbsp;and he has a reputation for making sometimes outlandish forecasts. The figure would be a substantial markup from the $44 billion Musk purchased Twitter for in 2022. In a matter of months, Twitter has undergone a drastic transformation, including a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/07/25/elon-musks-twitter-rebrand-sets-stage-for-everything-app-x-to-takeoff-experts-say-heres-how/">rebrand to X</a>. Musk changed the iconic bird logo, which experts told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;risks erasing billions in brand value. Though unconventional, the transformation signals a move towards transforming the platform into an “everything app” in the vein of China’s WeChat, something Musk has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/07/25/musk-says-x-name-change-is-a-result-of-his-push-to-build-an-everything-app/?sh=50e8e10675a1">been promising</a>&nbsp;to build a rival for. These superapps are like virtual Swiss army knives that combine features from multiple apps such as ride hailing, food delivery, payments, investing and messaging and they dominate markets in some parts of Asia where they are essentially ubiquitous in everyday life. There is significant&nbsp;<a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/financial-services/us-fsi-western-super-apps.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potential</a>&nbsp;for such a model to take off in Western markets and experts&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/07/25/elon-musks-twitter-rebrand-sets-stage-for-everything-app-x-to-takeoff-experts-say-heres-how/">told</a>&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;the rebrand is an opportunity for Musk to add features to elevate the platform beyond social media.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



$231.2 billion. That’s how much&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=5c26ba107999">estimates</a>&nbsp;Musk is worth. He occupies the top position on&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;list of the world’s richest people, leading French luxury goods magnate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/?list=rtb/">Bernard Arnault</a>, who is in second place, by around $18 billion. Musk’s fortune is largely derived from his stake in electric carmaker Tesla and a cohort of valuable companies he cofounded, including rocket firm SpaceX, brain implant company Neuralink and tunneling firm Boring Company.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Very few companies have managed to hit a $1 trillion valuation but X would not be the first of Musk’s companies to reach that threshold. Tesla topped a $1 trillion market capitalization in&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/25/investing/tesla-stock-trillion-dollar-market-cap/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2021</a>, the sixth company in U.S. history to pass the milestone. Its value has since dropped well below that level, though is still valued at more than $730 billion.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/07/25/elon-musks-twitter-rebrand-sets-stage-for-everything-app-x-to-takeoff-experts-say-heres-how/">Elon Musk’s Twitter Rebrand Sets Stage For Everything App ‘X’ To Takeoff, Experts Say—Here’s How</a> (Forbes)

Elon Musk Thinks X Could Become A Trillion Dollar Company—Here Are The Challenges Facing The Platform Since He Took Over

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Tech executives Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk suggested in June they’d be interested in clashing in a UFC-style cage fight, and egged each other on while tensions escalated between the two billionaires and their companies—but Zuckerberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/08/13/zuckerberg-thinks-its-time-to-move-on-from-planned-cage-fight-with-musk-elon-isnt-serious/">downplayed the potential</a>&nbsp;of a billionaire brawl Sunday when he said Musk “isn’t serious” about picking a date.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The idea of a cage match was first posed by Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1671364992665264131" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">over Twitter</a>, where the Tesla CEO responded to a thread about Instagram’s then-upcoming rival app Threads, saying, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.”



Zuckerberg responded the next day with an Instagram story showing a screenshot of Musk’s tweet captioned “send me location”—a reference to a famous line from former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov (a Meta spokesperson confirmed to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/21/23769263/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-fight-cage-match-worldstar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Verge</a>&nbsp;that Zuckerberg was being serious in his response to Musk).



As hype around a potential fight picked up, UFC president Dana White joined in on the anticipation, posting a video of himself sporting a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuCyF4HJQut/?img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zuckerberg vs Musk shirt</a>&nbsp;that was made available for purchase on the UFC’s website.



White was quoted in a July 1 story from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/technology/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-cage-match.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York Times</a>&nbsp;saying he would help organize an exhibition match between the tech CEOs and that they both wanted to fight—with both men agreeing there should be a charity component to the bout.



On July 3, photos of Musk training with UFC legend Georges St. Pierre, mixed martial arts coach John Danaher and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt Lex Fridman surfaced online—with an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CuQLly_vqrT/?img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Instagram post</a>&nbsp;from St. Pierre showing the four men in training gear.



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



Zuckerberg, who is trained in the grappling combat discipline of Jiu-jitsu, also employed the training services of elite fighting talent in July—made evident by&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/stylebender/status/1678848822041255937" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gym photos</a>&nbsp;taken with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski on July 11.



The two billionaires reinvigorated interest in a potential match in early August, when Musk said he was weightlifting to prepare for the fight, suggesting it would be live-streamed on X—the rebranded Twitter platform—and that all proceeds would go to a charity for veterans.



Zuckerberg responded to Musk’s posts via Threads, asking if a “more reliable platform” should be used for a live-stream of the fight and adding he was “not holding his breath” for a fight to materialize.



Although Zuckerberg has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.threads.net/@zuck/post/CvnechDSJeC" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">made clear</a>&nbsp;he is ready for a match, the same can’t be said for Musk, who said the date is “still in flux” and he&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1688377445957652480?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">may need surgery</a>&nbsp;before a fight can happen.



Days after calling the idea “in flux,” Musk said the Italian government agreed to an “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/08/11/elon-musk-says-italian-government-approved-epic-location-for-his-billionaire-clash-against-mark-zuckerberg/?sh=1d1742f043f9">epic location</a>” for a fight that would be managed by his and Zuckerberg’s respective foundations, not the UFC.



Zuckerberg shot down Musk’s plans, saying, “if he ever agrees on an actual date, you&#8217;ll hear it from me,” adding that he’d prefer to work with professional fight promotions such as UFC and ONE.



Just days after Zuckerberg expressed hesitation about Musk’s commitment to the match, the Meta CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/08/13/zuckerberg-thinks-its-time-to-move-on-from-planned-cage-fight-with-musk-elon-isnt-serious/">posted on Threads</a>&nbsp;on August 13 “it’s time to move on” because Musk won’t confirm a date, adding Musk said he needs surgery—and months of recovery—before fighting and wanted to do a practice round in Zuckerberg’s backyard.



The same day Zuckerberg announced the desire to move on, Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1690747345674137600" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">posted</a>&nbsp;a screenshot to X of the purported conversation in which he suggested a practice round; Zuckerberg responded over text telling him he should train on his own and say when he’s ready to compete, adding he doesn’t “want to keep hyping something that will never happen.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



In the background of Musk and Zuckerberg fight-related banter, tensions between the two have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2023/07/09/billionaire-brawl-now-whos-winning-the-fight-between-musk-and-zuckerberg/?sh=11d0221d26bc">increased</a>&nbsp;following the launch of Instagram’s Threads platform, a direct competitor to Twitter that launched July 5 and racked up its first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/07/10/with-100-million-users-in-five-days-threads-is-the-fastest-growing-app-in-history/?sh=287d252549ab">100 million users</a>&nbsp;on July 10. That same day, Musk called Zuckerberg a “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/07/10/musk-hits-below-the-belt-with-latest-zuckerberg-attacks-zuck-is-a-cuck/?sh=356527f622ee">cuck</a>” over Twitter and proposed a “dick measuring contest” with him. An attorney for Twitter accused and threatened to sue Meta for allegedly misusing Twitter’s &#8220;trade secrets and other intellectual property&#8221; and employing former Twitter staffers for help with developing Threads, labeling it as a “copycat” app of Twitter.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



Musk biographer Walter Isaacson later claimed in a Twitter Spaces session that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-cage-fight-match-unlikely-walter-isaacson-2023-7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">he doubted</a>&nbsp;a fight would happen and that it was “a metaphor” for the competition between the CEOs’ rivaling social media sites.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



-160. That was the&nbsp;<a href="https://dknation.draftkings.com/pop-culture/2023/6/22/23769810/mark-zuckerberg-vs-elon-musk-odds-cage-fight-who-will-win-wheres-the-asteroid" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hypothetical line</a>&nbsp;DraftKings set in June for Zuckerberg to win the match, making him the betting favorite, with bettors needing to wager $160 on Zuckerberg to return a $100 profit. DraftKings set the odds for a Musk upset at +140, meaning a $100 bet would deliver a $140 profit. The sports betting company attributed the lines to Zuckerberg’s younger age and his regular physical activity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



A cage match between the tech CEOs might involve some parameters to account for their difference in size. Notably, Musk told White that he would not be willing to “lose any weight” for a potential matchup. Musk, 52, stands around 6’1” tall and has made clear on Twitter that he&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1671699387620237312" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">almost never works out</a>. Zuckerberg, 39, is 5 &#8216;7” and regularly takes to physical training and competition, recently securing two medals in his first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/09/business/mark-zuckerberg-jiu-jitsu-winner/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jiu-jitsu tournament</a>&nbsp;in May, though he was also choked out in one of his fights, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/style/mark-zuckerberg-workout.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York Times</a>&nbsp;(Zuckerberg has denied the claim). Zuckerberg also seems to be the more avid fight fan, as he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, attended a UFC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.insider.com/video-mark-zuckerberg-attends-ufc-event-priscilla-chan-looks-shook-2022-10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fight card</a>&nbsp;last October.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



We estimate Musk is the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?list=rtb/&amp;sh=5a59a8f87999">$225.2 billion</a>. Zuckerberg’s net worth is estimated at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?sh=350141a23e06">$107 billion</a>—placing him at No. 8 on&nbsp;Forbes’ list of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#7b288cfb3d78">world’s real-time billionaires</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/07/11/mark-zuckerberg-training-with-ufc-champions-israel-adesanya-and-alexander-volkanovski-as-elon-musk-spat-intensifies/?sh=52e0cfd75d9a">Mark Zuckerberg Training With UFC Champions Israel Adesanya And Alexander Volkanovski As Elon Musk Spat Intensifies</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/technology/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-cage-match.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A ‘Cage Match’ Between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg May Be No Joke</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/07/10/musk-hits-below-the-belt-with-latest-zuckerberg-attacks-zuck-is-a-cuck/?sh=356527f622ee">Musk Hits Below The Belt With Latest Zuckerberg Attacks: ‘Zuck Is A Cuck’</a> (Forbes)

Elon Musk Vs Mark Zuckerberg Illustration

Zuckerberg Vs Musk: Disputes Heat Up Over Billionaire Cage Fight—Here’s Everything We Know

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Elon Musk’s fortune took a major hit Thursday after the share price of his electric vehicle titan Tesla suffered its biggest slide in three months, as the world’s richest person navigates yet another massive swing for Tesla.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Musk’s net worth slipped from $256.8 billion to $238.4 billion Thursday, according to&nbsp;Forbes’ calculations.



The staggering losses came after Tesla stock tanked nearly 10% as investors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/07/20/tesla-stock-takes-6-post-earnings-dive-heres-why-some-say-its-860-billion-valuation-is-disconnected-from-reality/?sh=d44f9eec0770">reacted sourly</a>&nbsp;to the automaker’s second quarter earnings report released after market close Wednesday.



The Tesla CEO’s lead as the wealthiest man on the planet shrank from $23 billion to $3 billion, putting Musk in jeopardy of once again losing his crown to LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, who was richer than Musk for a roughly six-month stretch from early December to last month.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/article/elon-musk/?sh=1af47a0926af">About 60%</a>&nbsp;of Musk’s net worth comes from his roughly 13% in Tesla, a third from his stake in private aerospace and communications giant SpaceX and less than 10% from his ownership of Twitter.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



During Wednesday’s&nbsp;<a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4618254-tesla-inc-tsla-q2-2023-earnings-call-transcript" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">conference call&nbsp;</a>with Tesla investors, Musk likened Tesla’s massive stock swings to a 2015&nbsp;<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/tagged/health/exclusive-warren-buffett-says-mr-125010039.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analogy</a>&nbsp;from Warren Buffett in which the famed investor said owning shares in a public company can feel like there’s an imaginary “drunken psycho” dictating the value of said stake. “Imagine living in your house and some crazy manic-depressive guy comes and stands outside your house and yells property prices at you, and it’s a different price every day,” Musk said. “But the house is still the same house.”



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Tesla stock’s two biggest daily losses over the last six months occurred in the first trading sessions following the release of Tesla’s sole 2023 earnings reports (Thursday and April 20).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/07/20/tesla-stock-takes-6-post-earnings-dive-heres-why-some-say-its-860-billion-valuation-is-disconnected-from-reality/?sh=d44f9eec0770">Tesla Stock Takes 9% Post-Earnings Dive—Here’s Why Some Say Its $840 Billion Valuation Is ‘Disconnected From Reality’</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/article/elon-musk/?sh=1af47a0926af">Behind The Billions: Elon Musk</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/19/heres-how-teslas-stock-performed-after-its-last-10-earnings-reports/?sh=52553ba51871">Here’s How Tesla’s Stock Performed After Its Last 10 Earnings Reports</a> (Forbes)

Elon Musk Got $18 Billion Poorer Thursday As Tesla Stock Faltered

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Tesla CEO Elon Musk reclaimed his throne as the richest man on earth Thursday, wrestling the title away from LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault as shares of Musk’s electric vehicle giant surged to their highest level this year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Tesla stock rallied 4.6% to $235 in Thursday trading, notching its 10th straight day of gains.



Musk’s firm is on pace for its highest closing share price since October 6, 2022.



After cratering to a two-year low in early January, Tesla shares are up nearly 115%, the third-largest return of any company in the S&amp;P 500, which is up 12% this year.



That rally has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2023/06/07/elon-musk-becomes-worlds-richest-person-again/?sh=54a20bdf4ca4">propelled</a>&nbsp;Musk to once again become the richest person on the planet, according to&nbsp;Forbes’ calculations, pegging Musk’s net worth to be $220.2 billion, $4.2 billion bigger than Arnault’s by market close.



On Wednesday, Musk briefly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2023/06/07/elon-musk-becomes-worlds-richest-person-again/?sh=54a20bdf4ca4">topped</a>&nbsp;Arnault for the first time since December, though he slid below Arnault again by market close.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



Despite the sustained rally, shares of Tesla remain more than 40% below their November 2021 peak of $410, far underperforming the S&amp;P’s 6% loss during the period.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



After surging during the pandemic, Tesla stock faltered dramatically last year as investors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/01/02/tesla-says-it-delivered-record-936172-electric-vehicles-in-2021/?sh=5f3657494d8b">soured</a>&nbsp;on the company’s promises of near limitless growth and Musk’s affair with Twitter, the social media platform he controversially bought last year for $44 billion,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/12/16/market-reacts-to-musk-antics-tesla-slides-to-2-year-low-as-twitter-embroiled-in-controversy/?sh=65f1706b15fd">pulling away</a>&nbsp;the billionaire’s time and financial resources from Tesla. Wall Street began to regain faith in Tesla after the firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/25/tesla-posts-best-ever-quarterly-revenue-and-profit/?sh=7db6e03437d1">reported</a>&nbsp;record quarterly revenue and earnings in January, setting forth a rally that gradually gained steam as Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-stock-price-elon-musk-twitter-ceo-81418315" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a>&nbsp;a replacement as Twitter CEO and played nice with lawmakers in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/elon-musk-meets-top-biden-admin-officials-discuss-electrification-goals-2023-01-27/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S.</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2023/05/31/musk-visit-highlights-business-role--in-us-china-ties---amcham-china-president/?sh=4f79f55018ca">China</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-emmanuel-macron-france-gets-red-carpet-treatment-amid-green-investment-push/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">beyond</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Tesla, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/article/elon-musk/">accounts for</a>&nbsp;a majority of Musk’s fortune, may be booming, but Twitter is amidst a far gloomier stretch as Musk’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/04/17/musk-admits-twitter-purchase-wasnt-financially-smart-and-he-paid-twice-what-its-worth/?sh=5e12024b65c6">efforts</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-04/elon-musk-says-twitter-can-be-most-valuable-company-in-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">transform</a>&nbsp;the company into the most valuable company on earth. The&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;reported Monday Twitter’s advertising revenues were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/06/05/twitters-us-ad-sales-down-59-despite-musks-breaking-even-claims-report-says/?ss=topadvisorshook&amp;sh=709385e4572c">down 59%</a>&nbsp;this April compared to the year prior, while Fidelity said last week it values Twitter at about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/05/30/fidelity-values-twitter-at-roughly-15-billion-a-third-of-the-sticker-price-paid-by-musk/?sh=65649d1e13e7">$15 billion</a>, about a third of the sticker price Musk paid last year.



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and you acknowledge our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2023/06/07/elon-musk-becomes-worlds-richest-person-again/?sh=54a20bdf4ca4">Elon Musk Briefly Becomes World’s Richest Person Again</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/06/02/tesla-stock-hits-4-month-high-as-elon-musks-net-worth-soars/?sh=1329c9c26b91">Tesla Stock Hits 4-Month High As Elon Musk&#8217;s Net Worth Soars</a> (Forbes)

Elon

Elon Musk Ends Day As World’s Richest Person For First Time In 6 Months

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The already stuffed wallets of several billionaire insiders at Alphabet grew even fatter Thursday as shares of Google’s parent company rallied, after the company’s Wednesday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/05/10/google-io-2023-ai/?sh=448f91e95704">announcement</a>&nbsp;of various new artificial intelligence features—capped by integrating AI into Google’s search engine——largely cooled investors’ fears about a wide gap in the AI space between Google and rival Microsoft.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Alphabet’s stock surged more than 4% Thursday, bringing its two-day gain to 9% following CEO Sundar Pichai’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/10/google-adding-ai-to-search-engine-for-some-users-closing-in-on-microsofts-ai-push/?sh=73fba5123502">presentation</a>&nbsp;introducing a variety of ways the company plans to utilize AI in its search engine and beyond.



Shares of the Silicon Valley stalwart are now at their highest level since August.



Google demonstrated “AI powered search can still be the gateway” to online activity and drive advertising revenue growth, according to Bank of America analysts Justin Post and Joanna Zhao, deeming Wednesday’s presentation “a positive step in changing the AI narrative” that Microsoft and its ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/17/google-stock-loses-57-billion-amid-microsofts-ai-lead-and-reports-it-could-be-replaced-by-bing-on-some-smartphones/?sh=7943e0145b07">better-positioned</a>&nbsp;to cash in on the AI craze.



Alphabet’s market capitalization swelled by nearly $120 billion over the last two trading sessions, solidifying its place as the fourth-most valuable public company in the world.



Largely reaping the benefits of the stock surge are Google’s billionaire current and former executives who added a total of more than $9 billion, including cofounders and board members Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who added $4.1 billion and $3.9 billion to their fortunes Thursday, respectively.



Fellow Alphabet board members Ravitark Ram Shriram and John Doerr added about $330 million to their combined fortunes Thursday, while early Google investor David Cheriton and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt grew more than $900 million richer.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuations">FORBES VALUATIONS</h2>



Page (worth $99.6 billion) and Brin ($95.3 billion) are the seventh- and 10th-richest people in the world, according to&nbsp;Forbes’ real-time billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#5ce0a38e3d78">tracker</a>. Page’s fortune surpassed that of Microsoft mogul Steve Ballmer and Mexican media magnate Carlos Slim Helu on Thursday, while Brin’s wealth pile surged past those of L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and financial data king Michael Bloomberg.



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



You may opt out any time. By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Alphabet has the “leading collection of AI/machine learning-driven businesses” of any technology company, Goldman Sachs analysts led by Eric Sheridan wrote in a Wednesday note to clients, adding the latest rollout caused the bank to become “increasingly constructive” on Alphabet’s long-term business strategy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



The freshly announced generative AI improvements are a “positive [step] in the AI battle” against Microsoft, but Alphabet continues to operate in “major catchup mode,” according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. Microsoft’s early investment in ChatGPT parent OpenAI gave it a “key head start” in the field that could prove challenging for Alphabet to overcome in the struggle for market share, Ives added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched in November to significant fanfare and was integrated into Bing in February, shortly after Microsoft&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/23/chatgpt-parent-open-ai-gets-game-changing-multibillion-dollar-boost-from-microsoft/">announced</a>&nbsp;it made a multibillion-dollar equity investment in OpenAI. Many&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/03/10/google-peacetime-ceo-sundar-pichai/?sh=359f71584ab1">considered</a>&nbsp;Google’s early response to the AI-fueled stiffer search competition to be subpar, with Alphabet shares&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/17/google-stock-loses-57-billion-amid-microsofts-ai-lead-and-reports-it-could-be-replaced-by-bing-on-some-smartphones/?sh=7943e0145b07">sliding</a>&nbsp;as much as 10% in the months following ChatGPT’s rollout.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/05/10/google-io-2023-ai/?sh=448f91e95704">Google Tries To Straddle Being &#8216;Bold&#8217; And &#8216;Responsible&#8217; In AI Product Blitz</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/10/google-adding-ai-to-search-engine-for-some-users-closing-in-on-microsofts-ai-push/?sh=73fba5123502">Google Adding AI To Search Engine For Some Users—Closing In On Microsoft&#8217;s AI Push</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/03/10/google-peacetime-ceo-sundar-pichai/?sh=359f71584ab1">Google’s ‘Peacetime’ CEO Sundar Pichai Faces Criticism As The AI War Heats Up</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/17/google-stock-loses-57-billion-amid-microsofts-ai-lead-and-reports-it-could-be-replaced-by-bing-on-some-smartphones/?sh=7943e0145b07">Google Stock Loses $57 Billion Amid Microsoft’s AI ‘Lead’—And Reports It Could Be Replaced By Bing On Some Smartphones</a> (Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/"></a>By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

FRANCE-ECONOMY-TECHNOLOGY-VIVATECH

Google Insiders Are $9 Billion Richer After AI-Fueled Stock Rally

Kazadi emigrated to South Africa as a child from DR Congo and built a digital marketing agency in his adopted country. In early May last year, the 29-year-old died under murky circumstances.



On April 28, 2022, Christian Kazadi was enjoying a sunrise safari in Botswana. Sporting a corduroy fleece jacket, shorts and white sneakers in an Instagram post from that day, Kazadi smiles as he leans back on a jeep, calling it a “bucket list experience.”



The 29-year-old founder of Johannesburg, South Africa-based digital marketing agency Click Media was in Botswana to attend the first ever&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;Under 30 Africa summit. It was a professional milestone for Kazadi, who had launched Click Media in 2016 with the last $30 in his bank account and bootstrapped it into a thriving business that ran social media campaigns for clients ranging from ESPN and Adidas to the National Basketball Association and KFC. Kazadi, who had yet to appear on&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;30 Under 30 list, was thrilled to have been awarded a spot at the conference.



But that Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc45W7Cq0CC/">post </a>was his last. Four days later, he was found dead in police custody 1,100 miles away in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.



A year later, Kazadi’s mysterious death remains unsolved. His family is still trying to piece together what happened to him between April 30—when he was set to return to South Africa—and May 2, when he died in Kinshasa. Investigations in South Africa and DR Congo are at a standstill, and no one—not the airport officials in South Africa that denied his entry nor the Congolese police that may have been involved in his death—has provided any answers.



“He never made it back home from the&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;event,” says Patrick Kazadi, Christian’s younger brother and cofounder and CEO of Click Media. “[We need] answers so the family can finally finish the grieving process and put the people who did this to justice.”



During his brief time in Botswana, Kazadi’s energy and entrepreneurial spirit made him stand out among his peers. &#8220;Even those who met him over the few days of the summit will convey how deeply they were touched by him,&#8221; says Pholo Kimbuende, a senior management consultant at consulting firm Guidehouse, who met Kazadi at the&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;Under 30 event. &#8220;The future just looked so bright, and the circumstances around his death were just utterly devastating.&#8221;



The mystery began on April 30, when Kazadi’s flight from Botswana landed in Johannesburg at 10:45 am. He wasn’t allowed to enter South Africa, despite having lived in the country since 2001 and possessing a valid work visa that ran from 2020 to 2023.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;spoke to multiple friends and family members of Kazadi who confirmed he had previously traveled from South Africa to other African countries before and had never had any issues returning, although it is not entirely uncommon for immigrants to have difficulties at the South African border.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;also called and spoke to several officials at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport, but they didn’t provide any information on Kazadi and instead referred questions to South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs. Home Affairs suggested that the family file a public records request, which they did but have yet to receive a response.



Kazadi was then made to book a flight to Kinshasa, DR Congo the following day. He arrived just past midnight on May 2. A Congolese citizen, Kazadi was born in the country but hadn’t been back since leaving with his family in 2001, when they emigrated to South Africa to seek asylum as refugees.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“There’s foul play at hand. He was in Congo for less than 24 hours and he was murdered.”
<cite>Patrick Kazadi</cite></blockquote>



Later that day, a bizarre video appeared online, showing Kazadi behaving erratically at a funeral in Kinshasa. The video appears to show Kazadi getting inside the casket with his headphones on and shouting “Guelor,” the name of the deceased person at the funeral—who Kazadi apparently did not know, although Guelor happens to be the name of one of Kazadi’s younger brothers. People then appeared to surround him and drag him away from the casket. Kazadi was arrested at the funeral and held in a detention center, where a family friend went to check up on him on the night of May 2.



The next morning, Kazadi was dead. “There’s foul play at hand,” says Patrick. “He was in Congo for less than 24 hours and he was murdered.”



Photos and videos provided by Kazadi’s family and seen by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;show Kazadi lying on what appears to be a road, shirtless and with deep cuts and welts on his head, arms, chest and feet indicating that he may have been tortured. In one of the photos, a Congolese policeman or soldier is seen standing in the background.



A member of the family that was hosting the funeral, who had urged the police to arrest him at the time, was called into the police station about a week after his death and gave the police her phone number. When they tried to get in touch with her in the following days, the police told Kazadi’s family that the number was disconnected.



Kazadi’s family told Forbes that the police officers who arrested him were briefly detained in May last year as local authorities investigated what happened, but no charges have been filed. Unfortunately, death at the hands of the police isn’t uncommon in DR Congo. 133 people died in detention in the country in the first six months of 2022, according to the<a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/415610_CONGO-DEM-REP-2022-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> United Nations Joint Human Rights Office.</a>



A year after Kazadi’s death, the investigation has gone nowhere. Captain Parfait and Colonel Honoré of the Congolese National Police, the officers in charge of the investigation in the Matete district of Kinshasa, have told the Kazadi family’s lawyer that the case file for the investigation has gone missing. Neither responded to questions from&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;about the status of the investigation.



“If it was the police that murdered him, of course they would get rid of the docket,” says Patrick. “The court case hasn’t even started because they currently can’t locate the docket file.”



In South Africa, Kazadi’s mother submitted a public records request to the Department of Home Affairs last July for information on why he was denied entry into the country. Under South African law, government agencies must respond to requests within 30 days, with the option of a single extension of no more than 30 additional days. But 296 days after the family initially submitted its request—and despite being repeatedly contacted by both Forbes and Kazadi’s family over the course of several months—the ministry has yet to provide an update.



Still, asylum seekers and immigrants with visas often face harassment from South African authorities. In its<a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/415610_SOUTH-AFRICA-2022-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;2022 human rights report on South Africa</a>, the U.S. State Department wrote that “security forces arbitrarily arrested migrants and asylum seekers, including those with proper documentation, often because police were unfamiliar with migrant and asylum documentation.&#8221;



The lack of progress on the investigations has also resulted in plenty of conspiracy theories online, with YouTube videos viewed more than a million times speculating that Kazadi was drugged or part of a cult. “They have a lot of incorrect facts,” says Patrick. “A lot of people in Congo don’t know what is going on.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Ever since he arrived in South Africa at age 9 in 2001, Christian Kazadi worked hard to improve his life. He emigrated to Johannesburg with his mother and younger brothers to join his father, Samuel, a pastor and IT teacher who had already been living there for two years. Tragedy struck in 2007 when Samuel died while on a business trip to DR Congo, leaving the family without a breadwinner. (The cause of death isn’t known.)



The local church raised money to pay for the family’s rent, and his mother started selling clothes and toys at a flea market. But his father’s death forced Christian—then just 15 years old—to help provide for his family. He sold snacks at school during the week and packed meat at a grocery store on the weekends with his younger brother Patrick. Eventually he convinced the store to hire his mother as a cleaner, so she could stay closer to home instead of traveling to sell goods at different markets.



“It was nothing like close to minimum wage, but it was constant,” says Patrick. “That’s what started Chris’ mentality for entrepreneurship and hustling.”



Those wages helped them move to a larger house in 2011, where the family of five shared one room and subleased the other three rooms to make extra money. Chris was also a strong athlete in high school, placing in national competitions for track and field and basketball.



“We would sit at home and cut boxes and stack them up and put them as soles in our shoes,” says Patrick. “He would walk five kilometers to the closest court and play ball.”



Kazadi’s dream was to play professionally in the NBA, and he wrote in his application for the&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;Under 30 event that he won a scholarship to play college basketball in New York after graduating from high school in 2012—but his family couldn’t afford to pay for his trip to the U.S.



There also wasn’t enough money for Chris to attend college at home, and they couldn’t apply for government scholarships that were reserved for South African citizens. Instead he kept working at butcheries, making about 300 rand—roughly $30 at the time—in tips on a good day and doing other odd jobs like frying meat. He also landed an unpaid internship managing social media for South African professional basketball player KP Ndlovu that year, running the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube accounts for his company Loqdown Productions, which organizes basketball tournaments for young players in Johannesburg.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Chris was a warrior and a soldier. I’m so proud of what he did and the legacy and empire he built and left behind.”
<cite>Joe Arrangement</cite></blockquote>



Kazadi’s luck started to turn the following year, when South Africa launched the professional Basketball National League (BNL). His work for Ndlovu caught the attention of FX Productions, a small marketing agency that managed social media for the BNL. He got hired to create social media content for the league, earning enough money to support his family and allow his mother to quit her cleaning job.



By January 2016, Kazadi was ready to strike out on his own. Against his mother’s wishes, he quit his job to take advantage of his own connections with the league and its teams to launch his own marketing firm. As an asylum seeker at the time, he couldn’t register the company himself. So he relied on a South African friend and used his entire savings—$30 at the time—to register the new company, which he named Click Media Productions.



His first idea was to host basketball tournaments, using his connections at the BNL to convince brands to sponsor his events. But the costs of organizing them—paying for kits, referees and venues—added up, leaving Kazadi in debt. So he turned back to focusing on social media, eventually making enough money to pay back the debt.



By 2017, the firm had grown enough that it was hosting regular tournaments. The first big break came that year, when Click Media handled digital marketing for the NBA Africa Game, which brought NBA stars like Dirk Nowitzki and Luol Deng to play in Johannesburg.



That growth allowed him to make his first hires to manage the firm’s new clients, which began to sign long-term contracts with Click Media. “This was my first official job, and it&#8217;s all because of Chris,&#8221; says Kaymo Moeti, who worked as a social media manager at Click Media from 2017 to 2018 and now runs marketing for a hip hop festival. “Everything that I learned, I learned from him. He&#8217;s the one that really taught me what I knew to help me get those opportunities.&#8221;



Click Media worked on the next NBA Africa Game in 2018, and the exposure helped put the company on the map, leading to new social media campaigns for clients ranging from ride-hailing app Bolt to rapper Lil Yachty. That same year, he obtained a South African work visa through Click Media. In December 2021, the company was named the best digital marketing agency in Johannesburg at the MEA Business Awards, organized by MEA Markets, a business publication focused on the Middle East and Africa.



&#8220;Chris was a warrior and a soldier,&#8221; says Joe Arrangement, a musician and music promoter who worked with Kazadi and Click Media. &#8220;I&#8217;m so proud of what he did and the legacy and empire he built and left behind.&#8221;



In March 2022, Click Media ran a social media campaign for cognac brand Hennessy and the NBA at a basketball court in Zoo Lake, Johannesburg. In an Instagram post from the video shoot, Kazadi hyped it up for his followers: &#8220;We got something really exciting coming to Zoo Lake soon,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;With some of your favorite celebrities.&#8221;



Two months later, he was gone.



Click Media is now run by his brother Patrick, who wants to carry Christian’s legacy forward and keep growing the company until it achieves his vision of becoming the top digital marketing agency in Africa.



&#8220;As the CEO of Click Media, with the good God&#8217;s grace and blessing, I will complete that which we started,” Patrick said in an emotional tribute to his brother at his memorial service last June. “Kazadi lives.”



The Kazadi family has a<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-memory-of-christian-kazadi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> GoFundMe page</a> to raise funds to pay for legal fees for investigating Christian&#8217;s death and to provide financial support for the family.



By Giacomo Tognini, Forbes Staff

Category: Billionaires