Starbucks shares are up more than 12,000 percent since beginning public trade.” “It is impossible to know what Kenny G's investment in Starbucks is worth, but if you had invested $1,000 in 1992 when Starbucks had its IPO, your investment would be worth more than $300,000 today. But coffee has been very good for him, just the same.Īccording to the Celebrity Net-worth website: And after listening to the smooth, relaxing sounds on his albums, it’s probably no surprise that he doesn’t even drink coffee. Howard Schultz was the guy, and Kenny and his uncle were among the earliest backers of Starbucks. The story goes that the uncle knew a guy in Seattle who was looking for initial investors for his coffee company. That’s about the time that his uncle suggested an investment. In his mid-20’s, he started playing tenor sax with Jeff Lorber Fusion and started putting a few bucks aside. Kenny attended the University of Washington, where he majored in accounting, which would probably make any mom and dad of sax player happy.
