Meet the heiress of Walmart Alice Walton, the richest woman in the world

Updated

2025-04-03T15: 30: 51Z

Walmart’s heiress, Alice Walton, is the richest woman in the world, with an estimated net value at $ 101 billion.
She spends part of her fortune to collect art, including the opening of a museum, as well as reproductive horses.
Here is an overview of his life, his career and his fortune.

Alice Walton, the only female heiress of Walmart fortune, is the richest woman in the world.

The three heirs of Walmart – Rob Walton, Jim Walton and Alice Walton – have a combined wealth of $ 320 billion, according to the list of billionaires of Forbes.

Alice Walton, 75, has an estimated fortune at $ 101 billion on April 1, 2025 and ranks 15th on the Forbes list. She is the richest woman in the world, ahead of the Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, whose net value is currently 81.6 billion dollars, according to Forbes.

Walton’s fortune increased by $ 28.7 billion this year, while Walmart’s shares increased by 40%, said Forbes.

Despite the high status of Waltons, their personal life remains largely private. Here is what we know about the way Alice Walton passes her fortune, from costly art to reproductive horses:

Alice Walton, the only daughter of the founder of Walmart, Sam Walton, is the richest woman in the world.

Alice Walton is one of the three children of the founder of Walmart Sam Walton.

Images Rick T. Wilking / Getty

Walton and L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers alternate regularly in first place; Walton has exceeded Bettencourt Meyers in recent months.

Unlike his brothers, Rob and Jim, Alice Walton has never played an active role in the management of Walmart and has rather become a patron of the arts.

Walton Walmart family — It is not active in the management of the family business.

Images Rick T. Wilking / Getty

Walton fell in love with the arts at a young age, according to a New York profile. When she was 10 years old, she bought her first work of art: a reproduction of a Picasso painting for $ 2, she told the publication.

After graduating from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, in 1971, Walton briefly entered the family business, working for Walmart as a children’s clothing buyer, she told New Yorker.

But his career really started in finance, which led him to the Llama Company Foundation, an investment bank in 1988.

She was married and divorced twice and has no children.

Walton has a huge collection of private art, with original works of legendary American artists, including Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Georgia O’Keefe.

Alice Walton — Walton focuses rather on the arts.

Sylvain Gaboury / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

“The collection was such a joy, and such an important part of my life in terms of seeing art and loving it,” she told New Yorker.

In 2011, she opened a $ 50 million museum called Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, to house her private art collection of $ 500 million.

Crystal Bridges Museum Arkansas — The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Slaton Reuters / Jacob

Walmart has its registered office in Bentonville. When the museum opened its doors, it had four times the endowment of the famous Whitney museum in New York.

In 2014, the Walmart heiress fell $ 44.4 million on a work of art by Georgia O’Keeffe.

It was the most expensive sale of a work of art by a female artist in history. Walton then presented it in its Arkansas museum.

Walton donated millions to the arts and other causes.

Wal-Mart Jim Walton, Alice Walton and Rob Walton family — Jim Walton, Alice Walton and Rob Walton applaud at the annual shareholder meeting for Walmart in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Reuters / Rick Wilking

In January 2016, Walton donated 3.7 million of its own Walmart actions – worth around $ 225 million at the time – to the family’s non -profit organization, Fortune reported. The following year, the charitable organization offered $ 120 million at Arkansas University to establish an art school.

She was sitting on the foundation’s board of directors alongside four other Waltons.

Walton also has its own charitable organization, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, which donates causes, including arts, education and health, according to its website.

Walton also put part of his money in politics.

Hillary Clinton was once a member of the Walmart board of directors.

Justin Sullivan / Getty

She traditionally gave the Republican candidates and the CAPs, although Walton made a donation of $ 353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Clinton and other Democrats, in 2016, according to Forbes.

The two women met while Clinton was the first lady in Arkansas and was the only woman sitting on the board of directors of Walmart.

Walton was active on the breeding scene in Texas, but in 2015, she said that she was going to devote her time more to her Crystal Bridges American art museum.

“I was stretched in too many directions and I want to focus,” said Walton, according to Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2017. “I have a house in Fort Worth, so I move to town.”

In 2017, she sold her Millsap, Texas Ranch for an undisclosed amount. The Rocking W Ranch had an initial price requested of $ 19.75 million, but was then reduced to $ 16.5 million. The work ranch had more than 250 acres of pastures and outbuildings for livestock and horses.

She had also put another Texas Ranch, the Fortune Bend Ranch of 4,416 acres, on the market roughly at the same time.

Alice Walton Ranch Home Texas — Walton had several Ranchs from Texas.

With the kind authorization of Williamstrew

It has also reduced its registration price to $ 22.1 million. The property has a modest three -bedroom house overlooking almost five miles from the river facade.

Walton also bought a two -storey condo on avenue Park in New York for $ 25 million in 2014.

Condo Alice Walton Park Avenue — A view of the Walton building on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Google Cards

The Condo, which belonged to the fire the financier Christopher H. Browne, has more than 52 large windows on Central Park and the city, as well as a media room and a library.

In 2015, demonstrators gathered outside the Walton building to demand a minimum wage of $ 15 for Walmart employees. In 2023, the median salary for workers in Walmart, the largest private employer in the world, was $ 27,642.

In 2021, the Alice L. Walton Medicine School was founded.

Rendered from the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, Arkansas — The inaugural class of the Faculty of Medicine will start courses in 2025.

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine

He received the preliminary accreditation status of the liaison committee on medical education in 2024, which allows him to start recruiting students.

“I am so proud of the work that the entire AWSOM team has accomplished to reach the status of preliminary accreditation,” Walton said in a press release at the time. “The school of medicine will play a central role in the education of the next generation of doctors, equipping them to take care of the whole person and have a lasting impact on health care in the heart and beyond.”

Its inaugural class will have 48 students, with courses from 2025. The non -profit school will give up tuition fees for its first five cohorts of students.

It aims to “improve traditional medical education with arts, human sciences and whole health principles,” said his website. He shares the same campus as the Crystal Bridges museum.

Katie Warren and Tanza Loudenback contributed to a previous version of this story.

businessinsider