Alice Walton: How the Walmart heiress became the richest woman in the world

Alice Walton, the sole female heir to the untold fortune of Walmart, is now the richest woman in the world.

The Walmart heirs, Rob, Jim and Alice Walton, have combined assets of more than $288 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. More specifically, Alice’s net worth (74 years old) is $95.1 billion and she ranks 18th on the list of the world’s richest people.

In fact, according to BusinessInsdier, she recently surpassed L’Oréal heiress Françoise Betancourt Meyer, who previously held the title of richest woman with a net worth of $91.1 billion.

Despite her prominent position, Alice Walton’s personal life remains far from the limelight. It is known that, unlike her siblings, she never took an active role in the management of Walmart. Instead, she pursued her passion for the arts. From a young age, Walton loved the arts. At just 10 years old, she bought her first artwork, a copy of a Picasso painting for just $2.

After graduating from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, in 1971, she worked briefly in the family business. However, her career focused on finance, culminating in the founding of the Llama Company investment bank in 1988. Walton has been married and divorced twice and has no children.

An art enthusiast, she has built up an impressive private collection of works by legendary American artists such as Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Georgia O’Keefe. She has stated that this collection is “a very important part of her life”. In 2011, she opened the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, with a $50 million investment to house her personal collection, which is worth more than $500 million. In 2014, she bought a work by Georgia O’Keeffe for $44.4 million, the most expensive sale of a work by a female artist in history.

In addition to art, Walton is known for her philanthropic work. In 2016, she donated 3.7 million shares of Walmart stock, worth about $225 million, to the nonprofit Walton Family Foundation. That foundation also donated $120 million to the University of Arkansas to establish a School of Fine Arts. She has also established her own charitable foundation, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, which supports the arts, education and health.

Walton has also been active in politics, mostly by donating to Republican candidates, although in 2016 she donated a significant amount to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Her relationship with Clinton dates back to when Clinton was the First Lady of Arkansas and the only female member of the Walmart board of directors.

In real estate, Walton has owned luxury properties, including the Rocking W Ranch in Texas, which she sold in 2017, and a luxury apartment on Park Avenue in New York City. In addition, she was active in horse breeding, but in recent years she has decided to focus more on her museum and other charitable activities.

Despite her vast wealth, Walton has been criticized for the low pay of Walmart workers. In 2023, the average annual salary of the company’s employees was $27,642, and Walmart remains the largest private employer in the world.

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