NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 15: (L-R) Angel Reese and Pat McGrath pose backstage at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025 on October 15, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret) By Kimberly Wilson ·Updated February 20, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Welcome to Black Wealth Watch, where we round up the biggest stories in Black business and economic news each week — the wins, the setbacks, the deals getting done, and the conversations we should be having about money, power, and who actually gets a seat at the table.

This week gave us a lot to talk about (and I’m not just talking about the America’s Next Top Model documentary). We’ve got a court ruling that Black business owners have been waiting on (hallelujah!), a beauty brand fighting to stay on its feet, a major retail giant who just lost its crown, and five Black doctors at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the country reminding us why representation in medicine is so important. Let’s get into it.

​​Pat McGrath Labs Gets A $30M Lifeline 

If you’ve been following the Pat McGrath Labs saga, you know it’s been a lot. She filed for Chapter 11 in January after a very public falling-out with her lender GDA and then things got messy enough that GDA tried to sell off the brand’s assets without Dame Pat’s involvement. Now a court has approved roughly $30 million in new financing from that same lender: $10 million immediately, plus a commitment of at least $20 million once the brand exits restructuring. 

The tradeoff is significant. GDA Luma takes a controlling equity stake and founder Patricia McGrath steps back from CEO to become Chief Creative Officer. She stays a significant equity owner, but those details haven’t been made public. 

The Supreme Court Just Struck Down Trump’s Tariffs

If you’ve been keeping up with the tariff chaos over the last year, you already know how much damage those cost increases did to small and Black-owned businesses. Today the Supreme Court finally weighed in. Six justices ruled that the 1977 law Trump used to impose the tariffs never actually gave him that authority, and that no president before him had ever read it that way. Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Alito disagreed, with Kavanaugh warning the government could end up owing billions back to importers. Trump has already said he’s going to find another way to get tariffs done, so this isn’t fully over. But today was a good day.

Amazon Is Now the Biggest Company in the World And It Just Dethroned Walmart

For 13 years, Walmart was the biggest company in the world by revenue. That changed this week. Amazon posted $716.9 billion in sales for 2025, edging out Walmart’s $713.2 billion once Walmart dropped its own earnings Thursday. And before you write Walmart off, don’t. They just hit a $1 trillion market cap and their U.S. e-commerce grew 27% last year. But this shift matters, especially if you’re a Black entrepreneur who uses Amazon’s marketplace to reach customers. The bigger Amazon gets, the more control it has over who gets visibility and on what terms. 

Five Black Doctors At Johns Hopkins Just Made History

This one has been all over our timelines, and rightfully so. For the first time in Johns Hopkins Hospital history, the Halsted trauma and acute care surgery service is led by an entirely Black team: Dr. Valentine S. Alia, Dr. Ivy Mannoh, Dr. Ifeoluwa “Ife” Shoyombo, Dr. Lawrence B. Brown, and Dr. Zachary Obinna Enumah. To understand the weight of that, consider the fact that Black people are 13.4% of the U.S. population but only 5.6% of surgeons in training. This team is changing what that picture looks like.

The post Black Wealth Watch: A $30M Boost For Pat McGrath, Amazon Surpasses Walmart, And Tariffs Are Struck Down appeared first on Essence.

Author: Kimberly Wilson

Read the original article on Essence.