Multimillionaire musician Will.i.am invested early in Tesla, Twitter, and OpenAI—now he’s betting on Gen Z MIT and Stanford grads for his next investment
- Will.i.am has an estimated net worth of $50 million, thanks to hit singles and solid investments in the likes of Anthropic and Pinterest. In a conversation with Fortune, he reveals where he’s investing next.
Black Eyed Peas front man Will.i.am has built a fortune off chart-topping hits like “Scream & Shout” and “Where Is the Love?” As of 2025, he’s reportedly worth around $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth—but it’s not just music that’s made him millions.
Beyond his success in the studio, he was an early investor in Tesla, Pinterest, and OpenAI, proving his business instincts are just as sharp as his songwriting. Now the rapper, producer, and The Voice UK judge has revealed what he’s looking for from his next investment.
“I did some pretty cool investments in the past,” Will.i.am (real name: William James Adams Jr.) told Fortune, while listing Pinterest, Dropbox, Open AI, and Anthropic as some of his smartest bets.
“I invested in Tesla in 2006, before Elon [Musk] took over the company, and he's done great, taking it to where it is. Hopefully, he can figure out a way to get it back to its glory,” he added. “I invested in Twitter early on. When Jack [Dorsey] left, I sold it. Made good there.”
So, what’s Will.i.am looking for in his next investment? “I'm hunting for what they call large concept models,” the 50-year-old Grammy Award–winning artist revealed.
“Right now, we're in large language models, but they're not concepts. It's just language—they're just regurgitating our imagination and our concepts,” he explained.
“Around the corner, someone's going to build large concept models. So you want to hunt for that. You want to hunt for the people that are out there doing that. They're students right now, they’re at MIT, they're at Stanford. They're young kids, and they're native to this. So you want to hunt for that. That's the only thing I'm focused on.”
Will.i.am has a long history as a futurist and tech entrepreneur. In 2011, Intel named him its “director of creative innovation.” His startup, i.am+, raised $117 million in 2017. Now, Will.i.am has set his sights on AI. He most recently founded FYI—an AI-driven productivity and communication platform for creatives—where he serves as CEO.
Will.i.am was speaking to Fortune in Rome for the rollout of Raidio.FYI radios in Mercedes-Benz cars.
Will.i.am’s biggest investment mistake
For all his successes, there’s one missed opportunity that still haunts Will.i.am: declining to invest in Airbnb when he had the chance.
Its founder Brian Chesky approached the rapper in the company’s early days with an opportunity to invest up to $200,000 in a fundraising round, but Will.i.am was skeptical.
“When you travel and you have success, you get used to the best hotels, the best service, right? So sometimes, when you're used to the best, and you're used to being pampered by the best, that could cripple you because when new experiences come, like Airbnb, you're gonna base it off of the best,” he explained.
“You're gonna say, hey, so you guys have concierge, and he's gonna say, no. That ain't gonna work. So you guys have room service? No. That ain't gonna work. So I was tunnel vision and pampered by luxury.”
Airbnb went on to have one of the most successful IPOs in history in December 2020. Had he taken Chesky up on the offer, Will.i.am’s $200,000 stake could be worth millions of dollars today.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com