When Beyoncé sang “it should cost a billion to look this good,” she was doing a bit of manifesting and foreshadowing.
The musician, entrepreneur, and mother of three is now a billionaire, according to a Forbes report. She is only the fifth music artist to reach three-comma status, joining others like her husband Jay-Z, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Bruce Springsteen. Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter’s estimated net worth is now one billion dollars. Her road to a billion is, at its core, a story of savviness and brilliant business.
“I am proud of what I have been able to do, but I also recognize the sacrifices—mine and my family’s. There was a time when I was pushing myself to meet unrealistic deadlines, while not taking the time to enjoy the benefits of why I was working so hard. There aren’t many of us from the late ’90s who were taught to focus on mental health,” Beyoncé told GQ in 2024. “I’ve paid my dues a hundred times over. I have worked harder than anyone I know. And now I work smarter.”
The 44-year-old really started building her wealth when she launched Parkwood Entertainment in 2010, taking control of her career and management in-house, allowing for better profit margins from her expansive and Grammy-record breaking music catalogue, documentaries, and performances. Since then, Beyoncé’s two recent global tours, tied to their respective albums, each significantly boosted her net worth. The 2023 “Renaissance Tour” generated nearly $580 million in ticket sales while the 2025 “Cowboy Carter Tour” raked in $400 million. She brought in as much as $148 million in 2025 before taxes, per Forbes estimates.
“I wanted everyone to take a minute to research the word cowboy,” Beyoncé continued in her GQ interview when addressing why she named her country album Cowboy Carter. Its tour became the highest-grossing country tour ever. “History is often told by the victors. And American history? It’s been rewritten endlessly. Up to a quarter of all cowboys were Black. The cowboy was named after slaves who handled the cows. The word cowboy comes from those who were called boys, never given the respect they deserved.”
Legacy is the throughline in what inspires Beyoncé’s work, including her moves beyond the music. While her recent albums have spotlighted Black American history, her recent business ventures have, too.
2024 was busy for the superstar. In February, she launched her haircare brand Cécred with her mother, Ms. Tina Knowles, who started off with a career in cosmetology. “It was in her salon that I realized my dreams of being a performer—inspired by one of her clients who happened to be an opera singer. I was captivated by her stories of a recent trip to Germany. In awe, I distinctly remember telling my mom that I wanted to be just like her client,” Beyoncé told ESSENCE in her March/April 2024 cover story. “So much of the fabric of who I am came from her salon.”
Then, in the fall of 2024, Beyoncé launched SirDavis, a whiskey brand that honors the history of masterful distiller Nathan “Nearest” Green and her own great-grandfather Davis Hogue, who was a moonshine whiskey maker. “Whiskey isn’t just for old men in smoky bars; it’s for anyone who appreciates depth, complexity, and a bit of mystery. The entire aging process is a labor of love, with attention put into every step, from the grains malting to the handcrafted barrels, and I appreciate all of it,” she added in GQ.
It’s important to remember this ain’t her first rodeo. Beyoncé has always looked to other channels and opportunities to expand beyond the music. The artist formerly launched fashion lines House of Deréon and Ivy Park, both now discontinued. Her foundation BeyGOOD focuses on giving back to marginalized and under-resourced communities.
She’s a definitional supernova and multihyphenate. Throughout her career, Beyoncé has taken every opportunity to boss up and better her craft, keeping her razor-sharp talent and intention at the forefront of each decision]. Though many of us may see her as a perfectionist — from her history-making 2018 Beychella showdown to her vocals and choreography on tour — she says success for her is actually “about being revolutionary.”
What’s best about this story is also about what’s next. Beyoncé is reportedly working on the final piece to her trilogy of albums that many fans have deduced will be a rock album. With that forthcoming album and era, we can likely expect another global and hundreds of million dollar grossing tour.
“My dreams, my passions, my skills, my fears, my traumas, my patterns, are all connected to my ancestors,” she told GQ. “They are part of me and I them. And I am honored to share the legacy of my family.”