Steph Curry signs landmark 10-year Li-Ning deal as his business empire hits $174 million in revenue

Stephen Curry has never been satisfied with just being the greatest shooter in basketball history. On June 1, 2026, he made that abundantly clear by announcing a 10-year partnership between his Curry Brand and Chinese sportswear giant Li-Ning, a deal he described as "the partnership of a lifetime" and one that sets the commercial direction of his post-NBA legacy more definitively than anything he has done off the court before.

The announcement came seven months after Curry and Under Armour mutually agreed in November 2025 to end their 13-year partnership, allowing Curry Brand to separate from the American sportswear company and seek a new exclusive global retail partner. Several brands, both American and foreign, reportedly made pitches during those months of free agency. Li-Ning won.

The 10-year deal covers basketball products, athleisure lifestyle wear and a full golf line on a global scale. Critically, it gives Curry the ability to sign both male and female athletes under his own brand, a dimension that transforms Curry Brand from a signature line into something closer to a sports company with its own roster. Plans include opening Curry Brand stores in China and the United States as the brand builds its global footprint. Li-Ning described the partnership as built around "long-term brand co-creation, multi-category performance product development, sports culture initiatives and a shared commitment to inspiring the next generation of athletes around the world."

In his announcement letter, Curry credited wearing the signature shoes of two existing Li-Ning athletes, his Golden State Warriors teammate Jimmy Butler and NBA legend Dwyane Wade, as part of what drew him to the company. "The future of Curry Brand will be powered by a company truly rooted in sports and innovation," he wrote.

The Li-Ning announcement is only part of the commercial picture around Curry in June 2026. On the court, he is heading into the final year of a $62.6 million contract extension he signed with the Warriors in August 2024, and reports from multiple NBA insiders indicate that Golden State fully intends to offer him a two-year extension worth up to $136.7 million when he becomes extension-eligible at the end of August. That would take him through his age-40 and 41 seasons in 2028-29 and, in all likelihood, to the end of his playing career. Curry has said publicly he wants to play at least 20 seasons in the NBA, all with the Warriors, and ClutchPoints reported that team sources have confirmed he has made that intention known repeatedly throughout his career.

Off the court, the business machinery is already running at a level that few athletes in any sport have matched. His holding company, Thirty Ink, a nod to his iconic jersey number 30, generated $173.5 million in total revenue in 2024, with every division reporting profitability. EBITDA for the year reached $144 million. Suresh Singh, Thirty Ink's secretary-chairman, said the company is deliberately designed around both mission and profit. "A lot of athlete-led ventures don't really focus on mission or profit," Singh told CNBC in June 2025. "We do both."

Thirty Ink is the umbrella that brings together the full portfolio of Curry's commercial interests. Its most significant component through 2025 was the Under Armour relationship, which at its peak generated the bulk of the $173.5 million in revenue. As part of a 2023 renegotiation, Curry was awarded 8.8 million Under Armour shares valued at $75 million at the time, along with additional incentives. Under Armour's own filings estimated that its total global basketball business, including Curry Brand, was generating between $100 million and $120 million in annual revenue heading into fiscal 2026, underscoring how central the partnership had been to both sides.

That revenue base now transfers to Li-Ning. Whether the new partnership can sustain and grow those figures will be the central commercial question of the next decade of Curry's business career. Li-Ning, founded by Chinese Olympic gymnast Li Ning in 1990, has been aggressively internationalising its business and has already signed Wade, Butler and other global basketball figures as part of that push. Curry is by far its most commercially significant acquisition.

Beyond Curry Brand and Thirty Ink, the portfolio extends in several directions. Unanimous Media, the production company Curry co-founded with producer Erick Peyton in 2018, develops television, film and digital content focused on family, faith-based and sports storytelling. The company has produced content for major streaming platforms and continues to be active.

Penny Jar Capital, the venture capital firm Curry co-founded in 2021 with college teammate Bryant Barr and investor Rich Scudellari, deploys capital into technology companies. The firm focuses on backing exceptional founders in early and growth stages.

Gentleman's Cut is Curry's bourbon brand, a premium spirits product that has been part of the Thirty Ink portfolio and contributed to the conglomerate's revenue base.

Underrated Golf and Underrated Basketball sit within the Thirty Ink structure as a lifestyle and sports brand committed to providing access and opportunity to underrepresented communities, extending the "elevate the underrated" mission that has run through Curry's business philosophy since he first built the SC30 platform. He has said the guiding principle of all his ventures is the same: identify talent and communities that are overlooked and build something around them.

Eat.Learn.Play., the foundation he launched in 2019, operates separately as a non-profit, having distributed 25 million meals, revitalized more than a dozen play areas and invested $6 million in literacy programmes. The foundation, rooted in his commitment to children's well-being in underserved communities, runs independent of the commercial entities but reinforces the brand values across the entire Curry commercial universe.

Forbes ranked Curry second on its 2025 list of the world's highest-paid athletes, just behind Cristiano Ronaldo, with $100 million in off-court earnings in 2024. With the Li-Ning deal in place, a Warriors extension likely coming in late summer and Thirty Ink posting record results, 2026 is shaping up as the most commercially consequential year of his career, even as he approaches his 39th birthday on March 14.

The question of what comes after the Warriors will eventually need an answer. For now, Curry has one more year on his current contract, a new shoe company and a business empire generating nine-figure annual revenue. Whatever happens on the court, the empire is already built.