How sports-tech power couple Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian make and spend their millions

A significant portion of her wealth comes from earning more than $94 million in career prize money, which is considerably more than any other professional women's tennis player.

In 2021, she made $45.9 million. Most of that money came from endorsement deals and other ventures.

She's partnered with Nike, Beats by Dre, Gatorade, Subway, Gucci, JPMorgan Chase, Tempur-Pedic, Ford, Aston Martin, Audemars Piguet, Intel, and Wilson.

Nike even honored its longtime partnership with Williams — who became a Nike athlete in 2003 — by naming a building after her. Nike's headquarters, located in Beaverton, Oregon, includes a 1-million-square-foot building with 140 tennis courts, which Nike named the Serena Williams Building in 2022.

In a venture outside sport, Williams created a line with the Home Shopping Network that included items such as coats, cardigans, leggings, and accessories.

"I wanted to showcase a lot of fringe," she said, explaining the inspiration for her designs to Women's Wear Daily in 2015.

The line has since been discontinued.

That year, she and the company conducted a survey looking at Americans' perceptions of the gender pay gap.

On average, women continue to earn less than men. In 2024, women made an average of 85% of what men earned, a slight improvement since 2003, when women made an average of 81% of what men earned, according to Pew Research.

Her sister, Venus Williams, also executive produced the movie, which dramatized the sisters' childhood, when their father served as their coach and helped them rise to tennis stardom.

Serena Williams hoped sequels would follow, focusing on the ways the sisters' stories diverged, she told Business Insider in 2022.

In October 2023, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Williams signed a deal with Penguin Random House to write two books.

The first is a memoir about her life, and the second is an inspirational book highlighting what she's learned as a philanthropist and an advocate for women and in her career as an investor with Serena Ventures.

In April 2024, Williams launched Wyn Beauty to create a space "where active beauty is celebrated and makeup is made to move in." The line includes products like eyeliner, concealer, mascara, lip gloss, and a skin tint with SPF.

The duo met in the spring of 2015 at the Cavalieri, a luxury hotel in Rome.

Ohanian sat down next to Williams outside by the pool, Vanity Fair reported in 2017. After trying to get him to move to a new table, she and her friends invited him to join them.

Ohanian had never watched Williams play — and wasn't much of a tennis fan — but he agreed to come to her match that night.

A year later, he sold the site to Condé Nast for $10 million. He was 23 years old.

Reddit is now worth billions. Ohanian later said the money was enticing because his mother was sick with terminal cancer at the time.

"The deal was months in the making, and I wish I'd had more advisors around the table giving me more perspective on the sale," he wrote on Twitter, now X, in 2020.

After leaving Reddit in 2009, he had stints at various companies like the travel search site Hipmunk, the startup accelerator Y Combinator, and the social enterprise Breadpig.

His resignation was in response to the site's long reputation as a platform for racist and misogynistic content, as well as for misinformation. He urged the company to fill his seat with a Black candidate instead.

Michael Seibel joined as the company's first Black board member days later.

In 2020, Ohanian also left Initialized Capital, an early stage venture capital firm he co-founded in 2011. 

A year later, he announced a new VC firm called "Seven Seven Six."

The firm has invested in women's track and Colin Kaepernick's AI company. Previously, Ohanian pledged $1 million to Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp using his Reddit stock gains.

In 2019, Forbes estimated Ohanian's net worth was $70 million; and in 2024, the outlet estimated Williams' fortune to be at $340 million.

The pair walked around the Jardin des Plantes, and Ohanian bought Williams some candy. 

Two chaperones — Williams' agent and assistant — accompanied them on their first date Ohanian said on TikTok in 2024. 

Ohanian then went to watch her play in the French Open later that week.

Williams told Vanity Fair she knew he was going to propose when he asked her to fly to Italy.

"I was like, 'Serena, you're 35, you're ready. This is what you want,'" she remembered thinking.

He got down on one knee at the same table where they had sat over a year before.

The New York Post reported that Williams' 17-carat, emerald-cut ring is worth $3 million.

To pay for it, Ohanian used part of the $50 million he got from crypto exchange Coinbase and other investments, he told Forbes in 2023.

Ohanian cheered on Williams, who won her 23rd Grand Slam and earned $2.7 million.

Following in her mother's footsteps, Olympia is a burgeoning fashion icon.

Olympia became the youngest person to grace the cover of Vogue at 3 months old.

At the time, Olympia, who was 2, was the youngest owner of a professional sports team.

They became the first Black women to own a stake in an NFL team, ESPN reported.

Williams joins Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of Kilmer Sports Ventures, as an owner of the Tempo, which will start playing in 2026.

"This moment is not just about basketball; it is about showcasing the true value and potential of female athletes — I have always said that women's sports are an incredible investment opportunity. I am excited to partner with Larry and all of Canada in creating this new WNBA franchise and legacy," Williams said.

"My dad had two nosebleeds for a number of years, and I upgraded his seats to four seats at the front row around the 50-yard line," he told CNBC in 2018.

For the ceremony, Williams wore a princess gown by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen and $3.5 million worth of XIV Karats jewelry, while Ohanian wore a suit by Armani, Vogue reported.

The tennis player posted pictures of herself and Ohanian on Instagram, writing: "Was so excited when Anna Wintour invited the 3 of us to the Met Gala."

"Adira is a girl's name of Hebrew origin and means 'mighty,' 'strong,' and 'majestic.' The elegant name is popular in many cultures around the world," Williams wrote on Instagram on her daughter's first birthday.

"Adira is the feminine form of the classic name Adir. It is a Biblical name, meaning 'Strong One,'" she added.

The family purchased the 6,000-square-foot home in 2017. It has a bar, pool, and spacious kitchen but no tennis court. 

They spend most of their time in Florida, where they own a stunning property in Palm Beach Gardens. The house includes an art gallery and trophy room.

They also have homes in Paris and Bel Air. One of Williams' houses has an entire closet dedicated to her shoe collection.

Olympia accompanied her parents to the 2024 Olympics in Paris and on an island-hopping vacation that winter.

When she was Aston Martin's chief sporting officer, she was photographed with a $300,000 Vanquish. In 2018, she became a brand ambassador for Lincoln.

According to his Instagram, Ohanian also buys comics and video games.

In 2011, the United Nations Children's Fund appointed Williams as a Goodwill Ambassador. UNICEF noted her work in Ghana in 2006, handing out anti-malarial nets and promoting vaccinations. She'd now an alumni of the program.

When Colin Kaepernick's 2018 Nike ad sparked controversy, she tweeted that she was "especially proud" to work with the brand. She previously voiced her support for the NFL player's activism as well. 

Along with Alison Stillman, Williams launched Serena Ventures in 2014. She said she became interested in investing when she was shocked to learn that less than 2% of all venture capital money was invested in women.

She told Forbes in 2022 she had goals beyond just being an endorsement athlete: "I want to be in the infrastructure. I want to be the brand, instead of just being the face."

Some of her investments include MasterClass, Tonal, Impossible Foods, and Noom, Vogue reported in 2022.

In a 2024 TikTok video, she said, "I've invested in over — in my personal portfolio — over 85 companies maybe, and I also have about 14 unicorns." Unicorns are privately owned companies valued at over $1 billion.

In his 2013 book, "Without Their Permission," he imagined a dismal, not-too-distant future — in 2025 — where the notion of privacy had completely disappeared.

He's also donated money to organizations working to diversify tech companies' talent pools.

In November, Ohanian revealed he'd undergone surgery to remove part of his thyroid. Doctors feared the nodules on his thyroid might be cancerous, so they removed half of the gland, he said.

"The worst part tbh has been not being able to lift for 2 weeks but big fella will be back at it next week and I took my girls to Disney World this week so life is wonderful," he wrote on Instagram.

He urged other men, especially fathers, to go to the doctor for regular checkups.

Earlier in 2024, Ohanian was diagnosed with Lyme disease as well.

In August 2022, she announced her intention to retire after the US Open. 

"If I were a guy, I wouldn't be writing this because I'd be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family," she wrote in an essay for Vogue.

"I've actually never played for money — I just thought you would go out there and hold a trophy," Williams said on "Kneading Dough," a personal-finance video series, in 2018.

She tried to deposit her first million-dollar check through a bank drive-thru before the teller told her she needed to come inside for such a large transaction.

This story was originally published on May 2, 2023, and updated on March 5, 2025.