Bang Si-hyuk, the founder and chairman of HYBE, saw his net worth drop to $1.7 billion in 2026 from $2.1 billion last year, according to Forbes’ 2026 ranking of the World’s Billionaires. Forbes used stock prices and exchange rates from March 1, 2026, for this year’s list.
Bang’s wealth
The music mogul ranks as the fifth-richest in South Korea’s media and entertainment sector, and is the only billionaire whose wealth is derived solely from entertainment. His $1.7 billion net worth is unchanged from 2023.
Kwon Hyuk-bin, who founded the gaming company Smilegate in 2002, is the richest person in South Korea, with an estimated net worth of $3.3 billion.
Globally, he is the second billionaire to derive his wealth from entertainment, after France’s Stéphane Courbit, chairman of Banijay Group, an independent production and distribution company.
K-pop’s first billionaire
Bang, who worked as a composer for JYP Entertainment, is also widely known as the mastermind behind BTS. The trailblazing boy band entered the Forbes‘ 2020 Celebrity 100 list for the first time, ranking 47th and becoming Asia’s highest-earning band, with $50 million in pre-tax earnings.
In 2005, he founded HYBE, then known as Big Hit Entertainment. The company saw early success with acts such as vocal co-ed trio 8Eight and boy band 2AM, which it co-managed with JYP Entertainment. However, it was BTS that ultimately propelled HYBE from a small agency into a global household name.
Today, HYBE is one of South Korea’s largest music labels and entertainment companies, home to artists including SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM, and CORTIS.
In 2020, Bang was named K-pop’s first billionaire after taking HYBE public in October of that year. The IPO marked South Korea’s largest in three years at the time and was oversubscribed by more than 1,100 times by institutional investors.
He debuted on Forbes’ Korea’s 50 Richest 2021 list with an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion. In 2021, Bang also appeared on Forbes’ 35th annual list of the world’s wealthiest individuals with a net worth of $2.3 billion. That year, he stepped down as CEO as part of a company-wide restructuring to focus on music production for HYBE’s artists.
Forbes estimated his fortune at $2.9 billion in 2022. It then declined to $1.7 billion in March 2023, according to Forbes’ 37th annual billionaires ranking, before rising slightly to $1.9 billion the following year.
