Taylor Swift
American singer and songwriter Taylor Swift has participated in a $2.8 million seed funding round in CharacterX, a San Francisco-based AI social network that allows users to create and interact with virtual characters, according to investor database Crunchbase.
The amount invested by Swift was not disclosed. Lightspeed Venture Partners, INCE Capital and Spark Digital Capital were the lead investors in the round.
CharacterX blends artificial general intelligence technology with blockchain to change the social networking landscape, the company said in a statement.
The team recently rolled out CharacterX's mobile apps for both Android and iOS, alongside a developer website, for users to “create and build deep emotional attachment with AI beings”, it added.
Swift, 33, is one of the world’s richest self-made women with a net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
She was also named Time magazine’s 2023 person of the year.
The Shake it Off singer has primarily earned her fortune from her successful music career, which she began at the age of 16 with her self-titled debut album.
Taylor Swift fans break out in song on delayed flight
Since then, her 10 studio albums have sold millions of copies, both physical and digital, according to Investopedia.
She entered the exclusive $1 billion club last October on the back of her 146-date Eras concert tour, which has shattered several records and sparked ticket frenzies.
Swift is one of the few artists to reach billionaire status from music and performing alone, Bloomberg reported.
Swift kicked off her 53-date tour around the US in March 2023, where she earned about $10 million to $13 million for each concert, according to Forbes.
The 12-time Grammy winner could earn as much as $4.1 billion from the tour, according to estimates based on her share of 85 per cent, The Washington Post reported.
Swift owns more than $150 million worth of real estate in the US, according to wealth-tracking website Celebrity Net Worth.
She has four homes in New York City, including apartments in the West Village and Tribeca, a beach house on Rhode Island, a seven-bedroom home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, properties in Nashville, Tennessee, and an estate in Beverly Hills.
Swift also owns two Dassault private jets and has a notable car collection.
She also makes millions of dollars every year from endorsements with brands including Diet Coke, AT&T, Target, Sony and CoverGirl.
She was set to earn more than $130 million in royalties from Spotify after taking the top spot as the most streamed artist on the platform's end-of-year Wrapped list in 2023.
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson
Dwayne Johnson, the former WWE wrestler known as “The Rock”, earned $491,000 in royalty payments from the company last year, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
TKO Group Holdings, the company that was created after parent organisation Endeavor merged the UFC and WWE, also announced in the filing that Johnson has been added to its board of directors.
As a board member, he will continue to earn royalties from revenue generated by licensing his name and likeness in future years.
Johnson will also receive restricted stock awards of up to $30 million and the trademark rights to his nickname, “The Rock”, which had been owned by the WWE since 2000, the filing said.
“I get a chance to sit at the table that my grandfather and dad helped to build,” Johnson, 51, said in a video on Instagram.
“The name, The Rock, I owe that name everything. Without that name, there’d be no wrestling career, there’d be no Hollywood career. The name, years ago, really allowed me to be me and that’s very special.
“Taking full ownership of my name, The Rock, is not only unprecedented, but incredibly inspiring as my crazy life is coming full circle.”
Johnson, a 10-time world champion, retired from full-time wrestling in 2004 but has made some sporadic appearances over the years.
He made his movie debut in 2001 with The Mummy Returns and has since appeared in nearly 50 movies.
His films have grossed more than $13 billion at the global box office, according to online database The Numbers.
In 2012, he founded film production company Seven Bucks Productions.
The company’s name is a reference to a bleak time in his life when he was cut from a Canadian football team and ended up living in Florida with $7 to his name, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
The production company has released movies including Shazam!, Black Adam and two films in the Jumanji franchise.
California-born Johnson’s net worth is estimated at $800 million. His stake in Teremana, the beverage brand he created, accounts for the biggest share of his wealth.
The brand, which sells one million cases each year, is worth several billion dollars, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
He has or has had partnership and endorsement deals with Apple, Ford and Under Armour.
Johnson is one of the highest-paid entertainers. In a typical year, he earns at least $100 million from his various film and endorsement endeavours.
Thanks to his massive social media following, Johnson contractually demands as much as $4 million just to promote his own movies. That’s on top of salary and back-end points, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Johnson has cofounded multiple business ventures, including ZOA Energy, an energy drink company, in partnership with Molson Coors, the SEC filing said.
In 2020, he co-led a consortium to acquire the XFL, a professional American football league, which relaunched in 2023 and recently combined with the USFL to become the United Football League.
Lindsay Lohan
Dubai-based actress Lindsay Lohan made $500,000 for her cameo in the new Mean Girls movie, according to a report in Variety magazine.
Lohan, 37, who starred in the original 2004 Mean Girls film, earned the amount for a half a day of work in the latest incarnation, an adaptation of the Broadway musical that ran from 2018 to 2020, Variety said.
She made $1 million to star in the original release, Celebrity Net Worth reported.
The Freaky Friday actress took more than a decade's break from films before returning to the screen with the Netflix romcom Falling for Christmas in 2022.
She's set to return to the streaming platform in romantic comedy Irish Wish in March.
The Parent Trap star gave birth to her first child last year in Dubai, where she lives with her Kuwaiti financier husband Bader Shammas.
Lohan moved to Dubai in 2014 after first visiting in 2008 for the opening of Atlantis, The Palm.
She has a net worth of $2 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Lohan has modelled for Miu Miu, Fornarina and Jill Stuart, among others, and has released her own brand of leggings and a self-tanning spray.
In 2014, she released a free-to-play mobile game called Lindsay Lohan’s The Price of Fame, and in 2017, she launched a lifestyle site called Preemium.
Her podcast, The Lohdown with Lindsay Lohan, premiered in April 2022.
She currently serves as the director of design at Vigme, a New York-based e-commerce shopping community, according to Crunchbase.
Jannik Sinner
Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner’s net worth has jumped to about $15 million after winning the Australian Open last weekend, according to online platform Sportskeeda.
The 22 year old pocketed $2.08 million for his first major win, increasing his total prize money to $20 million since he turned professional in 2018, Italian newspaper Money. IT reported.
Sinner beat Russian Daniil Medvedev in the final and also handed Novak Djokovic his first loss at Melbourne Park in six years in the semi-final.
No Italian man had won a Grand Slam singles title in nearly half a century – since Adriano Panatta raised the French Open trophy in 1976.
The bulk of Sinner's wealth comes from his success on the court, with prize money hauls earned from reaching the quarter finals of the French Open and US Open, as well as the semi-finals of Wimbledon last year, and endorsements.
Sinner earns about €25 million ($27 million) a year from an array of sponsors led by Nike, AP reported, citing the Gazzetta.
In 2022, he signed a $150 million ($15 million per year) 10-year contract with Nike.
His other sponsors include Head, Gucci, Lavazza, Rolex, Alfa Romeo and Parmigiano Reggiano, according to AP.
“My goal isn’t to make money; it’s to become the best version of me,” he said in a November interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
