Shaquille O'Neal Began Building His Estimated $500 Million Portfolio By Investing In This Tech Titan When It Was A Startup

Most people know today's professional athletes make millions of dollars; however, they may not realize that an alarmingly high number of today's NBA or NFL players will experience severe financial difficulties after retirement. Hall of Fame Center Shaquille O'Neal will not be one of them. His investment portfolio matches his larger-than-life personality, which got a big boost from his decision to invest in a (then) little-known company called Google in 1999.

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O'Neal won four NBA Championships for the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat while teamed up with fellow Hall-of-Famers Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. Although Shaquille's exploits on the hardwood were legendary, it was clear even from the beginning of his career that O'Neal was already planning for life after basketball.

He had a bevy of off-the-court ventures and sponsorships that significantly boosted his annual earnings.

His investment in Google, however, was a happy accident. According to Forbes Magazine, Shaq's agent, Perry Rogers, introduced him to Ron Conway in 1999. Ron Conway is the founder of SV Angel, a venture capital firm that has become legendary for its major successes in the tech sector. SV Angel was an early investor in companies like Twitter, PayPal, Facebook, and of course Google.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Shaq spilled more details about how meeting Conway (and his grandkids) would lead to the greatest investment of his life. O'Neal was having lunch at the Four Seasons with Perry and Conway, whose grandchildren instantly recognized him. The always affable O'Neal began playing with the children, and then Conway pitched him on to become an early investor in Google.

Shaq explained it by saying, "Basically, I'm doing a babysitting job, and one gentleman says ‘I want to talk about this company called ‘Google,' and just talking about search engines and ‘you'll be able to type in anything,' and I was like, That sounds good. We had a meeting with them and it looked good, and I put some money in and forgot about it." NBA observer Andrew Petcash estimated on X (Twitter) that Shaq's original investment was $250,000.

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Google has since mushroomed from a little-known startup to a bona fide tech titan, Alphabet. It does billions of dollars per year in advertising revenue and dominates a large portion of the search engine market. Its current market cap has grown from $100 million to an astronomical $2.2 trillion (according to Benzinga estimates). Hindsight being 20/20, it's safe to assume O'Neal wishes he'd invested ten times more than he did.

Although the amount of money O'Neal made on his early investment in Google has never been fully disclosed, making a six-figure investment in a company that eventually became worth over $2 trillion will turbocharge any investment portfolio. O'Neal has continued to grow his portfolio with investments in nationally recognized restaurants like Five Guys and Papa John's.

One unique method of portfolio building for Shaq is leveraging his fame to add visibility to some of the companies he invests in. O'Neal has done several successful deals where he offered cash plus endorsements for stock in companies like Lyft and Ring. The website CelebrityNetWorth estimates O'Neal's current net wealth to be around $500 million.

Although it's true O'Neal has benefited tremendously from being well-connected and having friends in the right places, there is still a lesson to be learned from his story as an investor. O'Neal was at the peak of his career in 1999 when he invested in Google. Yet, he still had the mind to recognize a good opportunity when it presented itself.

You may not have $250,000 to start your portfolio, and it's equally unlikely that a close friend of your agent is one of the world's foremost venture capitalists. However, you can still educate yourself about investing and begin planning on how to build your portfolio. As the old saying goes, "The journey of 1,000 miles begins with just one step."

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