Over the course of her career, Kim Kardashian has used her reality television fame to become one of the most successful businesswomen in the world, building an estimated fortune of $1.7 billion, according to Forbes.
Kardashian's family first garnered fame when her father, Robert Kardashian Sr., served as O.J. Simpson's lawyer in the 1990s. As a young adult, she later worked as a stylist for Brandy Norwood in the early 2000s, later working as her friend Paris Hilton's assistant and appearing occasionally on Hilton's show, "The Simple Life." Eventually, Kardashian and her two sisters, Khloé and Kourtney, opened their clothing boutique DASH in Calabasas, California, later opening locations in New York City's SoHo and Miami, Florida.
The biggest game-changer in Kardashian's career, however, was the launch of her family's 2007 reality television series "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." The show catapulted Kardashian and her family to a level of fame that eventually led to her current status as a billionaire and cultural icon.
Now, Forbes estimates that Kardashian is worth an estimated $1.7 billion, the lion's share of which is made from her stake in her shapewear brand, Skims.
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Skims was worth $4 billion as of July 2023
Kardashian launched her shapewear and apparel brand, Skims in 2019, changing the name from its original title Kimono after accusations of cultural appropriation. The brand's shapewear line featured unique silhouettes, like an asymmetrical short that can be worn with clothing that has a thigh slit.
Since then, the brand's purview has expanded past shapewear to other items like loungewear and basics. According to The New York Times, as of July shapewear no longer made up the majority of its sales —and the company plans to start selling men's items in the fall.
In July, The New York Times reported that Skims had raised $270 million in a new funding round, raising its valuation to $4 billion. In 2022, the brand was valued at $3.2 million.
Kardashian's business partner and Skims' chief executive, Jens Grede, told the Times that the company was profitable, and said that he hoped to eventually take the company public.
Forbes has estimated that Kardashian owns at minimum one-third of Skims, approximating that $270 million funding round added about $500 million to her net worth.
Kardashian has also earned money from her family's assorted reality series
"Keeping Up With the Kardashians" ran for 20 seasons from 2007 to 2021. In 2017, The Hollywood Reporter cited anonymous industry sources who claimed that Jenner and her daughters received $4.3 million annually for "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," with Jenner taking a cut of her children's earnings as their "momager." That year, the family renewed its contract with E! for the show through 2020, with an anonymous insider telling Variety at the time that the deal was "below $100 million." (An E! spokesperson declined to comment on the terms of the deal when reached by Variety.)
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The family eventually moved its reality television operation to Hulu, launching "The Kardashians" in March 2022. Khloé Kardashian told Variety that all of the family would earn the same salary for the series, saying that they were "all equals." Variety reported, citing anonymous insiders, that the family's deal with Hulu was worth nine figures.
Kardashian launched KKW Beauty in 2017, later shuttering it and launching a skincare line
Kardashian launched her own cosmetics line, KKW Beauty, in 2017 with a set of contouring kits, People reported.
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In June 2020, cosmetics company Coty agreed to purchase a 20% stake in KKW for $200 million, valuing the company at $1 billion, The Financial Times reported.
Then, in 2021, Kardashian announced that KKW would be closing in order to launch an entirely new brand, People reported. She launched SKKN by Kim, a skincare line that at launch cost $575 for the full nine-product collection, in June 2022.
Kardashian entered the investing world in 2022
In September 2022, Kardashian announced that she was launching a private equity firm called SKKY, alongside Jay Sammons, with her mother Kris Jenner listed as a partner.
According to a press release, the firm planned to invest in "consumer products, digital & e-commerce, consumer media & entertainment, hospitality and luxury."
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Though Kardashian and Sammons declined to confirm the amount to Fortune, the publication reported SKKY is looking to raise $1 billion to invest into businesses.
Kardashian's mobile game was also massively successful
"Kim Kardashian: Hollywood," a mobile game starring Kardashian that allows players to pursue their own celebrity career, launched in June 2014. In a July 2016 Forbes cover story, the publication reported that the game had been downloaded 45 million times, generating $160 million in revenue and earning Kardashian an estimated $45 million in the process.
Kardashian had a line of custom emoji as well
Kardashian launched "Kimoji," an app that gave users access to hundreds of Kim Kardashian-themed emoji, in late 2015. The app, which Fortune reported in 2016 cost $1.99, hit number one on Apple's App Store paid apps list in February 2016. According to Fortune, the app also made it into the top 50 highest grossing apps for Apple at the time.
In 2019, the app's developer sued Kardashian for $300 million, accusing her of cutting him out of profits, The Washington Post reported. According to Fortune, Kardashian won the lawsuit in 2020.
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Kardashian also has a variety of real estate properties
Kardashian's first home purchase was a condo in Beverly Grove in Los Angeles in 2005, which she ultimately sold for $885,000 in 2010, according to Architectural Digest.
Amid her divorce from ex-husband Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, Kardashian purchased his share of their Hidden Hills home for $23 million in 2021, People reported. The former couple, per Architectural Digest, purchased a Bel Air mansion for $9 million in 2013, later selling it for $17.8 million in 2017.
Kardashian also purchased Cindy Crawford's former Malibu home for $70.4 million in 2022, Architectural Digest reported.
A February 2022 Vogue cover story reported that Kardashian had two other real-estate projects in the works, with architect Tadao Ando building her a home in Palm Springs, and architect Kengo Kuma designing her a glass-and-wood lake house.
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Kardashian has a car collection estimated to be worth millions
Photos published by TMZ in April 2023 show a line of matching gray cars outside of Kardashian's Hidden Hills home, with the publication estimating their value to be approximately $2 million. Previously, Kardashian had showcased some of her favorite cars in a 2022 Vogue interview.
All of Kardashian's cars are gray in order to match her house, Kardashian said in the Vogue interview. In the video, she showed off her Lamborghini Urus Mansory, a Rolls-Royce Ghost, and her ultimate favorite, a Maybach sedan.
Kardashian also has a variety of other revenue streams, from paid Instagram posts to a burgeoning acting career
In 2019, Kardashian said at The New York Times DealBook conference (via CNBC) that she uses discretion when doing paid social media posts — and will sometimes weigh doing them depending on how much she's spent or anticipates spending at the time. She also said at the conference that she'll occasionally take on paid posts when she knows that she can use the revenue to pay legal fees for people behind bars.
Kardashian has also taken on a variety of acting projects over the years, such as a voice acting role in the "Paw Patrol" films. She also appears in "American Horror Story: Delicate" alongside Emma Roberts and Cara Delevingne.
