Kanye West seems to be on a mission to permanently decimate his career, reputation and personal finances. And just when you think the hole he's dug himself into couldn't possibly get any deeper or grosser, he digs it 500 feet deeper into sewage. Today he dug a hole by setting off a nuclear career bomb.
Prior to today, we believed Kanye West was still technically a billionaire on paper. We also saw a viable path where he could recover his former fashion empire and rebuild a multi-billion dollar net worth. No more. Kanye West isn't a billionaire anymore and he'll probably never be a billionaire ever again.
To be fair, the last week has been nothing short of a train wreck for Kanye. But today was definitely over the precipice.
At the end of last week Kanye and alleged Holocaust denier/white nationalist Nick Fuentes had dinner with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Trump later claimed to have not known who Fuentes was. In the aftermath, David Friedman, Trump's own former Ambassador to Israel described Fuentes as "human scum" and begged his former boss to "throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong."
Today Kanye did the unthinkable. He went on Alex Jones' show InfoWars.
It was an extremely bizarre experience. Kanye was wearing some kind of full-face mask zipped in the middle. He continually snapped at and lost patience with Jones. He rambled and interrupted. Oh and Nick Fuentes was there as well.
During the appearance, Kanye praised Hitler's outfits and architectural skills. He also denied 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust:
Kanye "Ye" West on Hitler: "He had a really cool outfit and he was a really good architect … and he didn't kill 6 million Jews." pic.twitter.com/BP2xrAQURG
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 1, 2022
Other Kanye statements included:
"I see good things about Hitler… Every human being has value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler."
Referring to Nazis he said:
"They did good things too. We've got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time."
The coup de grace was simply:
"I like Hitler."
(Photo by Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Kanye West Isn't A Billionaire Anymore
In late October, in the immediate aftermath of Adidas canceling its partnership with Yeezy, we took the stance that technically Kanye West was still very much a billionaire on paper. Kanye still owns 100% of Yeezy, which under Adidas was generating around $250 million in profits per year.
It was our view that Kanye's brand was still strong enough to eventually recover into something smaller but still extremely profitable and therefore valuable. Had Kanye denounced antisemitism and gotten on a straight path, it certainly could have been conceivable that an independent Yeezy would someday soon generate at least $100 million in annual profits, all of which would go directly to Kanye.
Using a conservative 10x multiple of profits (and retail businesses typically trade at closer to 15x, on average), that's a $1 billion business on paper. When combined with Kanye's $300-400 million fortune outside of Yeezy, he would certainly still be a billionaire on paper.
We no longer think this is a viable outcome.
After today's Alex Jones appearance, Kanye has gone across the point of no return. His brand is toxic and there's an almost non-existent chance Yeezy ever returns to a shade of its former dominance.
For that reason, we no longer consider Kanye West a billionaire. Today we adjusted his net worth down from $1 billion to $500 million.
Furthermore, we think it's extremely unlikely he'll ever be a billionaire again.
