Alice Walton tops Forbes world’s richest women list

Alice Walton has again been named the world’s richest woman, topping the latest ranking of female billionaires released by Forbes. According to the publication’s annual World’s Billionaires list, Walton’s fortune is estimated at $134 billion, placing her firmly at the top of the global ranking of wealthy women for the second consecutive year.

Walton, the daughter of Sam Walton and an heir to the retail giant Walmart, first became the world’s richest woman in September 2024 after overtaking Francoise Bettencourt Meyers.

Bettencourt Meyers, the heir to the cosmetics group L’Oréal, now ranks second among the world’s richest women with a net worth estimated at $100 billion. She is followed by Julia Koch, the widow of industrialist David Koch, whose fortune is estimated at $81.2 billion.

The latest ranking shows that women continue to make up a relatively small share of the world’s ultra-wealthy. Out of 3,428 billionaires globally, 481 are women, representing about 14 percent of the list, an increase from 406 women, or 13.4 percent, recorded the previous year.

Iris Fontbona rose to fourth place with an estimated wealth of $52.6 billion, surpassing Jacqueline Mars, the heir to the Mars Inc. fortune, who dropped to fifth place with $49.1 billion. Among the top 10 richest women, the only self-made billionaire is Swiss shipping entrepreneur Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, whose fortune is estimated at $44.5 billion.

Overall, only 122 of the 481 female billionaires built their fortunes themselves, up slightly from 113 self-made women recorded the previous year. The next richest self-made woman is American businesswoman Diane Hendricks, whose wealth is estimated at $22.3 billion.

Several prominent celebrities also appeared on the billionaire list. Global music star Beyonce made her debut with a net worth estimated at $1 billion. Other well-known self-made women include Rihanna with about $1 billion, Sara Blakely with $1.4 billion, and Taylor Swift with approximately $2 billion.

Another new entrant is Luana Lopes Lara, a co-founder of the prediction market firm Kalshi. At 29 years old, she has become the youngest self-made female billionaire, surpassing Lucy Guo, the 31-year-old entrepreneur behind Scale AI.

Meanwhile, Melinda French Gates and Marilyn Simons dropped out of the top 10 richest women, replaced by Fontbona and Chinese billionaire Zheng Shuliang, vice chair of an aluminium company founded by her late husband.