The world’s richest women have amassed and inherited wealth in retail, cosmetics, shipping, finance, mining, technology and philanthropy, many of them linked to some of the world’s largest family-founded companies.
Today, Saturday, October 3, 2026, Alice Walton is the world’s richest woman, with an estimated net worth of $115.7 billion, according to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires list.
Next up is L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and family with $90.4 billion, while in third place comes Julia Koch and family with $84.6 billion.
Here are the 10 richest women on Forbes’ real-time list as of today, Saturday, October 3, 2026.
1. Alice Walton: $115.7 billion
Alice Walton, 76, is the sole daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton and the richest woman in the world, according to Forbes’ real-time list. Her net worth, calculated at $115.7 billion from Walmart, is not like her brothers Rob and Jim, who were on the company’s board, but she declined a board seat. Instead she has concentrated much of her time on art and charities.
Walton’s most high-profile cultural endeavour is the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which she opened in 2011 in the Walton family homeland of Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum includes pieces by artists such as Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Mark Rothko, a nod to Walton’s long-held interest in art and philanthropy.
2. Françoise Bettencourt Meyers & family – $90.4 billion
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is 73 years old, the granddaughter of L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller, and the heiress to one of the world’s biggest beauty fortunes. She and her immediate family hold more than a third of the publicly traded cosmetics business, giving the family an estimated worth of $90.4bn.
Bettencourt Meyers was a member of the L’Oréal board from 1997 to 2025, when her son, Jean-Victor Meyers, succeeded her as vice chairman. Her other son, Nicolas Meyers, is also a director. She became the family’s main L’Oréal heiress in 2017 after the death of her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, aged 94.
3. Julia Koch & family — $84.6 billion
Julia Koch and her three children inherited a 42% share in Koch, Inc., the company once called Koch Industries, after the death of her husband, David Koch, in 2019. Forbes estimates the family’s fortune at $84.6 billion, ranking the 64-year-old Koch as the third-wealthiest woman on the real-time list.
A native of Iowa, Koch went to New York City in the 1980s and worked as an assistant to fashion designer Adolfo. During that period she worked with a number of high-profile clients, including former US First Lady Nancy Reagan. Her wealth is mostly connected to a family shareholding in Koch, Inc.
4. Jacqueline Mars — $50.3billion
Jacqueline Mars, 86, owns an estimated third of Mars, the privately held confectionery, food and pet-care corporation founded by her grandfather. She is one of the world’s wealthiest women with a fortune of $50.3 billion.
Mars worked for the family company for nearly 20 years and was a board member until 2016. Her riches is linked to the sprawling economic empire of Mars, which has expanded well beyond the candy it is known for into food and pet-care enterprises.
5. Iris Fontbona and family — $47.4 billion
That is 83-year-old Iris Fontbona, who inherited her wealth after the death of her husband, Chilean billionaire Andrónico Luksic, in 2005. Luksic had developed a corporate empire from mining to drinks by the time he died of cancer. He passed his company down to Fontbona and their three boys.
Fontbanna and her children are the owners of Antofagasta Plc, a London-listed business with copper mines in Chile. Mining is the family’s major source of wealth, which is valued at $47.4 billion. Fontbona’s son Guillermo Luksic died of lung cancer in 2013, aged 57.
6. Rafaela Aponte-Diamant — $46.1 billion
Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, 81, is another self-made millionaire on the list. She and her husband Gianluigi established a fortune in the shipping industry. The pair each own 50 per cent stakes in MSC, which Forbes describes as the world’s largest shipping line. Her net worth in real time is calculated at $46.1 billion.
Their professional journey began when they met on the Italian island of Capri in the 1960s, when Gianluigi was a ship’s captain. They got into the shipping industry together in 1970, buying a ship with a $200,000 loan, and eventually built the global shipping enterprise that is the foundation of their fortune.
7. Abigail Johnson — $41.6 billion
Abigail Johnson, 64, is chairman and chief executive of Fidelity Investments, the financial services company founded by her grandfather, Edward C. Johnson II, in Boston in 1946. She took over as CEO in 2014 from her father and has been chairman since 2016. Forbes estimates her wealth at $41.6 billion.
Johnson is said to control about 29 per cent of Fidelity. Her wealth is mostly derived from the family’s long-standing financial-services business, which manages $7.1 trillion in discretionary assets as of December 2025.
8. Savitri Jindal & family – $38.4 billion
Savitri Jindal, 76, heads the O.P. Jindal Group, which has interests in steel, power, cement and infrastructure. Her $38.4 billion fortune is largely based on the industrial empire built by her late husband, Om Prakash Jindal.
Following the death of O.P. Jindal in a helicopter crash in 2005, his commercial interests were split among his four sons, who run the enterprises independently. The group’s major assets are controlled by her Mumbai-based son Sajjan Jindal, who manages businesses like JSW Steel, JSW Cement and JSW Paints.
9. Marilyn Simons & family — $36.6B
Marilyn Simons, 75, acquired her wealth from her late husband, Jim Simons, the mathematician who founded the quantitative hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. Jim Simons passed away in 2024 at the age of 86. The Simons family is worth $36.6 billion, according to Forbes.
Simons has a PhD in economics from Stony Brook University, where she met her spouse. Now she leads the $4.5 billion Simons Foundation, the chief funder of Math for America, expanding the family’s footprint beyond finance into education and research.
10. Melinda French Gates $34.5 billion
Melinda French Gates, 62, founder of the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, is one of the most recognisable women in global charity. Her real-time net worth is $34.5 billion, Forbes estimates, with Microsoft as her source of fortune.
French Gates, after over 24 years with the organization, stepped down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2024. Her exit follows three years after her 2021 divorce from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who Forbes estimates paid her $25 billion in the split.
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