Forbes has unveiled its annual list of the richest self-made women in the United States and four Black women who’ve helped shift things in between fashion and retail, media and entertainment are among the 43 mentioned on the list: Oprah, Sheila Johnson, Beyoncé and Rihanna.
“To be eligible for the list, women also had to have substantially made their own fortunes in the U.S. and/or be permanent residents,” Forbes wrote in an explanation of its methodology to determine who would make the list. “While none inherited their wealth, some have climbed farther and overcame more obstacles.”
Both Rih and Queen Bey are tied at No. 39 on the list, with each being worth $1 billion. While Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty empire helped catapult her to self-made billionaire status, Beyoncé’s is mostly due to touring as a solo artist and as a member of Destiny’s Child. Her “Cowboy Carter Tour” generated $450 million, making it the highest-grossing country tour of all-time as she finally won a long-awaited Album of the Year Grammy at the Grammy Awards in 2025.
Oprah and Johnson are two women who’ve been on the list for quite some time. Johnson, who divorced her husband, BET co-founder Bob Johnson, in 2002, sold her shares in the network and used the proceeds to build wealth through a portfolio of hotels, real estate and horses. She hasn’t fully divested from ownership, though, as through her shares in Monument Sports, she owns a stake in the WNBA’s Mystics, the NBA’s Wizards, and the NHL’s Capitals. After making the list in 2025, Johnson increased her wealth to $1.2 billion.
Oprah ranks No. 16 on the list as the richest self-made Black woman in America. Seeing her net worth rise from $2.3 billion in 2023 to a new peak of $3.2 billion. Since the end of her talk show in 2011, Oprah has extended her name into her own television network (OWN), production and more. Even after selling OWN to Warner Bros in 2020 for shares of the company, she expects those shares to jump further in value after the company’s merger with Paramount closes.
In the U.S., more than 700 men are self-made billionaires, with a combined net worth of $6.7 trillion, but the number of women having a say in the number of billionaires is on the rise. Now, there are more women who are billionaires than at any other period in American history, and there likely will be more Black women to join the self-made richest women list.
