He’s diversifying the portfolio!
Michael B. Jordan has joined Wrexham FC owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney as a new investor in Formula 1 team Alpine, Deadline reports. The Creed star has joined a collective of investors in the Renault-owned team, taking a 24% stake in the car racing company that amounts to about $220 million. The stake will fall under Reynolds’ Maximum Effort Investments company, making Jordan one of the few Black owners in the Formula 1 industry.
Other investors in Alpine include Otto Capital, RedBird Capital, and Fenway Sports Group, an investment company in which LeBron James is a partner that also happens to own shares in the Boston Red Sox. Alpine is currently fifth in the F1 world championship.
“Maximum Effort Investments focuses on unlocking value through the power of storytelling, and we believe there is tremendous untapped potential in Alpine Racing…We are eager to help shine a light on this incredible team. We’re thankful to our partners…as well as our co-investors Michael B. Jordan and Rob McElhenney,” said Maximum Effort co-founder, James Toney.
While Jordan may be new to investment circles, he’s making all the right moves, previously partnering with Serena Williams to invest $1 million in TracFlo, an operations management app, and becoming a football club investor earlier this year as a minority owner of the English soccer team Bournemouth FC, Essence reports.
“It is crazy and amazing. One reason I wanted to invest is that there was so much potential there. If you give to the community, and you have new managers and new players you can raise the culture of the team. It’s exciting,” Jordan previously told reporters.
He now becomes the next famous Jordan brand associated with car racing investments, Michael Jordan making history in 2020 as the first Black majority owner of a NASCAR Cup Series Team, the NBA icon picking up NASCAR phenom Bubba Wallace as his driver.
“Historically, NASCAR has struggled with diversity, and there have been few Black owners. The timing seemed perfect as NASCAR is evolving and embracing social change more and more,” Michael Jordan explained.
With so much diversity and inclusion in the racing world, it looks like we’ll all be gearing up for more racing events, and clearly, we gotta start with Formula 1!!
Cover photo: Michael B. Jordan is the new proud owner of a Formula 1 car racing team/Photo Courtesy of Tayo Kuku Jr./Michael B. Jordan/Instagram