Alice Walton Just Became The World’s Wealthiest Woman

The only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton overtook French heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers on Wednesday morning.

With Walmart stock at an all-time high, Alice Walton–the only daughter of the retail giant’s founder Sam Walton (d. 1992)–just became the world’s wealthiest woman for the first time since May 2022. With an estimated $89.1 billion fortune, Walton, 74, overtook L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of France, who briefly became the first female centibillionaire in June and is now worth an estimated $88.4 billion.

Walton now ranks as the 18th richest person in the world, according to Forbes’ real-time tracker, one spot behind her brother Rob Walton. Walmart stock is up 47% year to date, while L’Oreal is down 13% during the same period.

Despite selling more than $22 billion of Walmart stock over the past decade—and giving away more than $11 billion of the retailer’s shares—Sam Walton’s heirs still own nearly 46% of the firm their father founded, due to significant stock buybacks that have prevented the family’s stake from being diluted. Forbes estimates that three-quarters of the clan’s stock is split evenly between Alice Walton and her siblings Jim and Rob Walton, who are worth $95.9 billion and $94.2 billion as of 9:15 am Eastern time Wednesday, respectively. Most of the rest belongs to the heirs of their brother John Walton (d. 2005): his widow Christy Walton and son Lukas Walton, who are worth $16.4 billion and $33.9 billion, respectively.

Rob Walton retired from Walmart’s board in June after more than four decades as a director, including more than 20 years as chairman–a role that has been held by his son-in-law Greg Penner since 2015. Jim Walton was replaced by his son Steuart Walton on the retailer’s board in 2016 and now chairs the family’s Arvest Bank.

Alice Walton, meanwhile, worked briefly at Walmart as a buyer of children’s clothes, after graduating from Trinity University in Texas in 1971, before shifting her focus to curating art. She chaired the family’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in their hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas for a decade, before handing the reins to her nephew Tom Walton’s wife, Olivia Walton, in 2021. Alice Walton is credited with founding the museum, though almost all of the $1.6 billion it cost to open the facility in 2011 came from trusts in the names of her brother John Walton (d. 2005) and mother Helen Walton (d. 2007).

Alice Walton has ramped up her personal philanthropy over the last decade, pouring more than $5.7 billion into five family charitable foundations that have doled out more than $1.1 billion of her funds to date, including more than $377 million her Art Bridges Foundation has spent acquiring and loaning out works of American art to more than 230 museums across the country since its founding in 2016. Her new Alice L. Walton School of Medicine–a stand-alone entity–plans to welcome its inaugural class to Bentonville in 2025.

“Over the past several years, I’ve founded new organizations focused on the arts as well as health and well-being,” Walton said in a press release announcing her retirement as chair of Crystal Bridges in 2021. “I’d like to focus more fully on my board chair roles at these entities.”