Kanye West no longer a billionaire as Adidas end partnership

West is no longer a billionaire after Adidas ended its relationship with the rapper over his repeated antisemitic comments, Forbes reported on Tuesday.

Forbes valued West’s deal with the German apparel company at US$1.5 billion, and says his net worth without it plummets to US$400 million.

Adidas announced its decision to cut ties with West, who goes by the name Ye, on Tuesday, saying production on the rapper’s “Yeezy” line of shoes and clothing had been halted “immediately”.

“Adidas does not tolerate anti-Semitism and any other sort of hate speech,” Adidas said. “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”

The move came shortly after the talent agency CAA dropped West, 45, as a client and the movie studio MRC decided not to release a completed documentary about the 24-time Grammy winner.

Earlier this month, West’s Instagram account was restricted and his Twitter account was locked over posts deemed anti-Semitic, including one in which he said he’d go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”.

West generated outrage as well by claiming on the Revolt TV show Drink Champs that George Floyd died from the drug fentanyl, among other controversial comments.

“On TMZ, I just saw yesterday, they said: ‘Pete Davidson and Kim [Kardashian] have sex by the fireplace to honour their grandmother’. It’s Jewish Zionists that’s about that life, that’s telling this Christian woman that has four Black children to put that out as a message in the media,” West said on the show.

West married Kardashian in 2014 and has four kids with the reality star. She filed for divorce last year, and on Monday posted a tweet condemning hate speech.

“Hate speech is never OK or excusable,” Kardashian tweeted. “I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end.”