10 Celebrities Worth Over $500 Million

1. Oprah, $3.2 billion The queen of gab has amassed a fortune of over $3 billion with her media empire. Though the talk show ended in 2011, O Magazine continues to be popular.

2. Paul McCartney $1.24 billion. The former Beatle is still making music, and his daughter Stella McCartney has made her own fortune with her fashion design business. Maybe making money is just in the blood for this family.

3. Madonna – $1 billion. Madonna was worth $100 million within the first ten years of her career. With her music, record-busting tours, movies, children’s books, and various other projects, she’s managed to create a fortune worth about a billion dollars. Not bad for a nobody from Bay City.

4. U2 – $838 million. Everyone alive during the 1980s remembers their music – and their tunes continue to usher generations through their teenage years, thirty years on.

5. Dr Dre $830 million. The former rapper the bulk of his fortune in 2014 when Apple bought his headphone brand Beats. The deal was worth $3 billion, and a huge chunk of that went to Dr. Dre personally.

6. Jay-Z $810 million. The rapper is a capitalist success story, creating his fortune with smart partnerships and music that appealed to the masses.

7. David Copperfield – $800 million. Who knew magic could be so lucrative? The magician conjured up almost a billion dollars in his 20-year career, and is expected to hit a billion before long.

8. Tom Cruise – $550 million. The mega-star has been a sure-fire moneymaker since Risky Business back in the 1980s. The money didn’t slow down even during his mis-steps, like the maniacal couch-jumping on Oprah’s show and his bizarre videos discussing Scientology. For better or worse, he’s an American treasure.

9. Simon Cowell $550 million. The record producer made his first million in 1995 producing such acts as Five, Westlife, and – no joke – Teletubbies. He’s gone on to be a talent judge on numerous shows.

10. Mariah Carey $535 million. The songstress has created some of the most soulful music of the last twenty years – but has been less successful in her movie career. Glitter didn’t put a dent in her bank account.