Rich Dudes│How Bad Bunny Went From Bagboy to Millionaire

From dance trends on TikTok to WWE matches to political protests, Bad Bunny is everywhere. But the Puerto Rican rapper is best known for his signature reggaeton and Latin trap music. Along with millions of fans worldwide and a record-setting Grammy nomination, Bad Bunny—Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—has built a net worth of $18 million since launching his career in 2016.

We took a deep dive into Bad Bunny's net worth. Continue reading to get a glimpse of his investments, including his part-ownership of Miami's Gekkō steakhouse and his $3 million Bugatti.

Bad Bunny's net worth at a glance:

These days, you can find Bad Bunny on magazine covers, sold-out stages, and fashion runways. But back in 2013, the king of Puerto Rican Latin trap was bagging groceries while pursuing a degree in audiovisual communication at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

By night, he was recording music and uploading it to SoundCloud long before he was one of the most streamed artists on Spotify. As one of only a few Puerto Rican musicians experimenting with trap music, Bad Bunny's tracks gained traction and eventually caught the ear of music executive Noah Assad in 2016. He described it as a "Gen-Z reinvention of reggaeton" and decided he had to meet the rapper.

With Assad as his manager, he got signed to the label Hear This Music and immediately began putting out hit songs. Bad Bunny released a 2016 single, "Soy Peor," which ranked 19th on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, and his 2017 collaboration with Karol G, "Ahora Me Llama," reached number 10.

Most streamed artist

In 2018, Bad Bunny's career hopped onto US airwaves with two high-profile collaborations: "I Like It," with Cardi B and J. Balvin, and "Mia," with Drake. His stateside fame grew in a relatively short period—"Mia" hit No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year—and he began smashing records for Latin and Spanish-speaking musicians:

• Three of his albums earned top Billboard 200 spots—YHLQMDG at No. 2, El Último Tour Del Mundo and Un Verano Sin Ti at No. 1—firsts for Spanish-language albums.
• His March 2020 hit "Yo Perreo Sola" was his ninth No. 1 single on the Billboard Latin Airplay chart in a two-year period.
• He was a guest performer at the Super Bowl LIV halftime show alongside headliners Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.
• YHLQMDG  was the top album streamed globally on Spotify in 2020, and he was the most streamed artist two years in a row.
• His 2022 world tour, set to run from August to December, became the highest-grossing tour by a Latin artist in October with $235.5 million earned.

Beyond Bad Bunny's singing skills, he has been making a name for himself on the small and big screen. He's had a recurring spot on Narcos: Mexico and a role in the 2022 action-comedy Bullet Train. He's had plenty of experience with action through his interests in skateboarding and professional wrestling. He's even appeared in WWE performances—entering the ring several times since 2021 and even winning the 24/7 Championship in February 2022. He reportedly earns $250,000 for each WWE performance.

His Spotify streams have brought in more than $8 million, plus an additional $3 million from YouTube. This impressive income has allowed the reggaeton singer to start diversifying his portfolio with a variety of investments. Let's take a closer look at the portfolio of El Conejo Malo.

Bad Bunny has investments in a variety of assets, mainly franchises, collectibles, and real estate. We don't have exact numbers for each of these asset classes, but we have investigated to help us make the best estimates we can.

Based on the estimated values of his assets, we picture Bad Bunny's portfolio breakdown as:

We'll get into each asset class and how much we estimate his holdings to be.

Bad Bunny franchise and startup investments

Bad Bunny's partial ownership of a basketball team and a Miami restaurant appear to represent most of his investment portfolio. While he hasn't disclosed the exact size of his stake in each, we considered similar investments to judge his holdings.  

1. Basketball team

Bad Bunny became co-owner of the Puerto Rican basketball team, Los Cangrejeros de Santurce, in May 2021. We don't know exactly how much he put in for his stake in the team, but we can draw conclusions from the basketball market in the U.S.

Currently, the least expensive team in the US is worth $1.6 billion, but basketball has exploded in popularity since 2010 and the value of US teams now isn't the best comparison for Puerto Rico's teams.

While basketball is becoming more popular in Puerto Rico, the professional sport hasn't yet reached the same level as US basketball. If we look back to when basketball wasn't profitable in the US, we'll see more comparable numbers. In 2011, the Philadelphia 76ers sold for $287 million—one of the lower sales at the time. This seems like a reasonable comparison to Puerto Rico's basketball market and how much Los Cangrejeros de Santurce probably cost today.

Bad Bunny is not the sole owner of the team—he shares ownership with Noah Assad and Jonathan Miranda of Rimas Music Entertainment. We can assume that Bad Bunny holds a minority stake, so we estimate his investment to be worth around $5 million.

2. Restaurant

In August 2022, Bad Bunny launched Gekkō in Miami's Brickell neighborhood. The area is the city's financial center and the restaurants and bars tend to cater to upscale, business, and banking clientele. The Japanese-inspired steakhouse is co-owned by David Grutman of Groot Hospitality, which owns several high-end nightlife establishments in Miami.

His investment in Gekkō isn't publicly disclosed, but we can look at similar restaurants to estimate his position. Opening a sushi restaurant takes about $280,000 as of October 2022, including construction costs, but Gekkō is in a rented space—based on its location and seating, we can estimate that it costs about $87,000 per year.

While Bad Bunny and Grutman didn't have to build it from the ground up, they did have the interior designed by the Rockwell Group, known for luxurious restaurant and lounge designs.

Based on these details, we can estimate the restaurant's opening costs at around $200,000. And since Bad Bunny and Grutman are the only owners, it's fair to assume the Latin artist holds a 50% stake of about $100,000 and that the restaurant could be raking in at least $65,000 per month in profit.

Invest in franchises

Income-producing commercial properties are a long-trusted method of diversifying and hedging against inflation among the super-wealthy. But even if you don't have six figures stuffed in your mattress and celebrity clout to put into a franchise investment, you can still access this asset class to expand your portfolio.

With Elevate Money, you can become a landlord to dollar stores, gas stations, or fast-food restaurants—businesses that are shown to perform during all types of economic cycles. Elevate's experienced team finds, purchases, and manages real estate to rent to these businesses for long-term leases of five to 20 years, and all you have to do is invest and collect your predictable monthly income.

3. Collectibles

Superstars and sports cars are a classic combo, so Bad Bunny's 2020 purchase of a Bugatti Chiron 100 ANS makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, he might not agree. Despite owning the limited edition $3 million sports car, he prefers to drive his 2003 Toyota Corolla to keep a low profile and take the stress out of driving.

The Bunny Bugatti suffered a minor fender-bender outside of Gekkō when a Lamborghini Urus rear-ended it while the driver was trying to maneuver out of their parking space. The low-speed collision probably left little damage, but it's just one more reason to keep his Chiron in the garage.

However, with only 20 Bugatti Chiron 110 ANS cars in existence, even a slightly dented vehicle is a very valuable asset.

Other valuable cars have been seen in his music videos and social media, like a Rolls Royce Dawn valued at $368,850 and a Mercedes G-Wagon SUV, but it's not clear if he owns these. 

Invest in collectible cars

While you might not be able to snag a secondhand Bugatti, you can still invest in collectible cars on a budget. The Rally investing app offers shares in valuable collectibles, similar to purchasing shares of a company's stock. You can own a fraction of a car from Ferrari, Porsche, or Lamborghini without worrying about where to park it.

Adding a collectible car to your portfolio can be simple and stress-free.

4. Real estate

Real estate is the smallest piece of Bad Bunny's net worth. The singer currently rents properties in San Juan, Miami, and Los Angeles, but he doesn't yet own much real estate.

His mobile tour home is his only real estate holding at the moment. The dwelling is a 53-foot trailer truck that's been converted into a one-bedroom, one-bathroom home by West Coast Customs. The interior is styled after some of Bad Bunny's music video imagery, including the floral-bedecked bedroom of his "Yo Perreo Sola" video.

Invest in real estate

Bad Bunny hasn't yet purchased a stationary home in one of the cities he frequents, but he's likely to do so soon. If you're on the fence about buying your own real estate, you can still access the benefits of investing in it with fractional real estate.

Arrived Homes is a real-estate investing platform that set out to make rental properties simpler and more accessible. Real estate investing used to be reserved only for those who could afford it and had the time and knowledge to manage investment properties. But with Arrived Homes, U.S. investors can buy shares in income-producing single-family rental properties for just $100.

Arrived Homes reports that its investors received cash dividends in Q3 2021 between 5.95% and 7.54%. Historically, Arrived Homes reports cash dividends from rental properties that translate to 5.4% to 7.0%.

On top of dividend earnings, you may also make money from property value growth. While they can’t predict future returns, Arrived reports historical returns of 11.5% to 13.1% have been made from investing in rental homes when combining dividend payments and potential property appreciation.

Bad Bunny's investments are still young and we haven't seen all of their returns yet. However, the Bugatti he purchased for $3 million in 2020 has already increased in value. Now that all 20 of them have sold, the price of a Bugatti Chiron is estimated at $4 million. That's a $1 million increase since the car's release in 2018—an 8.33% annual return over 4 years.

While a traditional 60/40 portfolio may have yielded higher returns than Bad Bunny's portfolio, the singer has chosen assets that appreciate over time—luxury collectibles and real estate—and he's following his passions. His investment in Los Cangrejeros de Santurce is one of the many ways he reinvested in Puerto Rico, along with his Good Bunny Foundation, which provides youth arts and sports programs and disaster relief for Puerto Rican residents.

If Bad Bunny wrote out his investment strategy over a danceable beat, it would go something like, don’t stress too much about making money and focus on creating something beautiful.

Bad Bunny may not have made the most lucrative investments, but between his dope converted truck and limited-edition Bugatti he has certainly invested in beautiful and unique things. Here's a breakdown of his investing principles.

1. Align your investments with your beliefs.

Bad Bunny doesn't hide his heart or mind, and his investments are connected to his beliefs and values. Whether it's investing in Puerto Rico with his co-ownership of Los Cangrejeros de Santurce basketball team or creating a nurturing, creative space that can follow him on his tours, Bad Bunny puts his money where his heart is.

2. Don't fear the dips.

Most of Bad Bunny's investments haven't skyrocketed, but his investment assets are long games. Franchises and luxury collectibles can appreciate over time, even if they don't look promising in the short term.

3. Keep it simple.

Bad Bunny's investments are straightforward. He at least partially owns the assets he cares about, and when he gets into unfamiliar territory, he takes a step back to get a clear look at what's going on—like driving his 2003 Corolla instead of navigating hurdles with his Bugatti Chiron.