Black Elites

Markets, capital and the companies redefining the global economy.

Deep reporting on the deals, firms and industries where the next chapter of wealth is being written.

In business

The Scale Gap in Black Wealth: Turning Small Businesses Into Real Enterprises

The United States has millions of Black-owned businesses. Most employ nobody other than the owner. In 2023, about 4.4 million Black-owned businesses without employees brought in $130.9 billion. Spread...

Why Hollywood’s Richest Black Stars had to Break the Studio System to Build Real Wealth

In 1996, Warner Bros. paid Arnold Schwarzenegger $25 million upfront for Batman & Robin—a film that became an industry punchline, yet paid him roughly $1,000 per second of screen time. Around that...

The Next Black Business Boom Won’t Be Built From Scratch

America has spent years teaching Black entrepreneurs how to start companies. The next ownership opportunity may look different: buying one that already works. In 2023, the U.S. Census Bureau counted...

More Black Businesses, Not Enough Black Enterprises: The Scale Problem Hiding in the Numbers

Black Americans own more businesses than at any previous point in the country’s history. The rise deserves attention, but the headline number does not show how many of those businesses create jobs...

Black Consumers Built the Demand. Who Gets to Keep the Margin?

Black shoppers make up 11.1% of spending in the American beauty market. Black-owned brands get 2.5% of the industry’s revenue back. And McKinsey found Black consumers are three times more likely...

The One Thing Every Black Billionaire has in Common that has Nothing to do with Money

Twenty-seven. That’s the whole list, worldwide, as of the 2026 Forbes count. Twenty-seven Black billionaires out of 3,428 billionaires total on the planet — fewer than one percent of a group...

The Cities Where Black-Owned Businesses Are Growing the Fastest in America

America had roughly 201,000 Black-owned employer businesses in 2023, generating $249 billion in annual receipts. That was a significant expansion from 2017: the number of Black-owned employer firms...

Otis Rolley Changed What It Means for Investment to Work for Communities

Most leaders treat investment as a numbers game: more capital in, mission accomplished. Otis Rolley asked a different question: Who actually benefits? As president of the Rockefeller...

Reggie Fils-Aimé Didn’t Try to Beat Nintendo’s Rivals. He Expanded the Market

When Reggie Fils-Aimé joined Nintendo of America in 2004, the company was getting left behind. Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox dominated the console wars, and Nintendo’s...