Alice Walton has emerged as Forbes’ world’s richest woman for the second consecutive year. 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.
76-year-old Walton, the daughter of Sam Walton and an heir to the retail giant Walmart, was first named the world’s richest woman in September 2024, after dethroning L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers.
Bettencourt Meyers 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.
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.
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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.
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 Beyoncé made her debut with a net worth estimated at $1 billion.
Other notable self-made women include Rihanna ($1 billion), Spanx founder Sara Blakely ($1.4 billion), and Taylor Swift ($2 billion). Another newcomer is Luana Lopes Lara, a former ballerina from Brazil who co-founded the prediction market firm Kalshi. At 29, she becomes the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, taking the title from 31-year-old Scale AI co-founder Lucy Guo ($1.4 billion).
Melinda French Gates ($30.3 billion) and Marilyn Simons ($32.5 billion) were replaced by Iris Fontbona and Zheng Shuliang ($33.2 billion), vice chair of a Chinese aluminum company founded by her late husband.