Ryan Cohen’s Net Worth Explained: GameStop Billionaire CEO Who Boosted Alibaba Stake to $1B

Key Takeaways

• Ryan Cohen is the CEO of GameStop and an activist investor.
• Since 2022, Cohen has accumulated $1 billion worth of Alibaba stock.
• He has pushed Alibaba’s board to repurchase company shares.

As one of the largest GameStop stakeholders and a prolific technology investor, Ryan Cohen’s net worth has ballooned in recent years.

In his latest bet, Cohen has reportedly accumulated $1 billion worth of Alibaba shares, marking a major pivot to Chinese equities for an investor who has traditionally favored American stocks.

Who Is Ryan Cohen?

Ryan Cohen is a Canadian entrepreneur who first found success as the co-founder of the online pet supplies store, Chewy.

When PetSmart purchased Chewy for $3.35 billion in 2017, Cohen earned about $1 billion before taxes—cash that he soon directed to other companies

By the end of 2020, Cohen had acquired nearly a thirteen percent stake in GameStop Corporation (GME), making him the company’s largest single investor.

Having emerged as a vocal activist investor, in 2021, Cohen was appointed as GameStop’s Chairman.

The move was received favorably by traders and helped catalyze one of the most dramatic stock rallies in modern history, now known as the GameStop short squeeze.

A year later, he took on the role of CEO, a position he has held ever since.

Cohen’s Wealth Sources

Besides GME, Cohen has also invested in Bed Bath & Beyond and Nordstrom, where his reputation as the “meme stock king” helped generate significant interest in both firms.

In the case of Bed Bath & Beyond, Cohen controversially sold his 9.8% stake just five months after amassing it.

The move generated him an estimated $60 million in profit and triggered a major selloff that would prefigure the company’s bankruptcy a year later.

Meanwhile, Cohen acquired a significant stake in Nordstrom toward the end of 2023 and benefited from a $6.25 billion deal to take the retailer private in 2024.

According to a Wall Street Journal profile , Cohen also holds sizable equity holdings in Apple, Wells Fargo and Netflix.

Finally, since 2022, the GameStop CEO has grown his stake in Alibaba to about 7 million shares worth roughly $1 billion.

GameStop CEO Backs Alibaba

Cohen first started accumulating Alibaba stock in the second half of 2022.

Notably, he remained bullish on the Chinese Big Tech firm at a time when the Chinese economy was struggling, and Alibaba and its peers were trading well below their former highs.

Although his stake in Alibaba is small compared to GameStop and other companies he has been involved with, Cohen has nonetheless sought to influence Alibaba’s direction.

In August 2023, he reportedly contacted the company’s board to express his view that Alibaba shares were undervalued and encouraged the firm to take advantage of market conditions and pursue share buybacks.

In conversations with the board, Cohen pointed to Apple’s success with share repurchases, which have helped boost the firm’s stock price and generated billions of dollars for investors in recent years.

Ryan Cohen Net Worth

Through his investments since 2017, Forbes estimates that Cohen has grown the billion dollars he earned from Chewy into a $4.6 billion fortune.

Cohen’s single most valuable portfolio asset is his stake in GameStop. As of April 30, his GME stock was worth around $1.57 billion.

In Cohen’s Own Words

“I invested in GameStop because I thought it was cheap. I thought the intrinsic value of the business was worth more than the price I paid.

“It was our determination, tenacity, focus, and being customer-obsessed from day one that made us successful.”

“If you’re in the business of delighting your customers, I think you could be very successful […] in any category.”