Françoise Bettencourt Meyers stunned the world late last year when she became the first woman to amass a $100 billion fortune through her stake in cosmetics giant L'Oreal.
Her fortune has fallen to $89.9 billion since the beginning of the year, but she held the title of the world's richest woman for several months.
Bettencourt Myers has now been dethroned by the heir to another business empire on the other side of the Atlantic.
Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, has seen her fortune soar to $95.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Walmart's shares have surged more than 43% so far in 2024, bolstering Walton's fortune in the process.
Both women come from families with longstanding traditions in the beauty and mass retail industries: L'Oreal was founded in Paris 115 years ago and is ranked 90th in the Fortune 500 Europe rankings, while Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has been ranked No. 1 on the Fortune 500 list for the 12th consecutive year with annual revenues of $648 billion in fiscal year 2024.
Stephanie Keenan/Getty Images, courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Trust
L'ORÉAL'S GENERATIONAL HERITAGE
Bettencourt Myers, 71, is an academic turned chairman of Thetis, the family holding company that owns most of L'Oréal, and vice chairman of the board of directors of the company his grandfather founded in the early 20th century.
Bettencourt Myers and her family own around 35% of the cosmetics group, which she inherited from her mother, Liliane, who died in 2017. The heiress is notoriously private and little is known about her life outside L'Oreal. Her two sons serve on the company's board of directors.
L'Oreal, which owns such well-known brands as Lancôme, Aesop, La Roche-Posay and Maybelline, has become a global powerhouse and has been doing well recently after struggling with sluggish business and weak demand in China.
The company is one of France's crown jewels in the business world, but Bettencourt Meyers' wealth is still far below that of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, whose net worth is currently $196 billion.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (center) with her sons Nicolas (left) and Jean-Victor (right) in February 2015.
Mehdi Fedwack—AFP/Getty Images
Walmart heiress and richest woman in the world
Walton is a philanthropist and currently the 18th richest person in the world. He runs Walton Enterprises, one of the two family-owned businesses that run Walmart, from which much of his wealth comes.
Walmart has had an incredible run as America's largest brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retailer. The company established itself by offering the lowest prices and easiest access to the average American through its affiliates such as Sam's Club. The company achieved $1 billion in annual sales in 1980 and continues to be a powerful corporate force, surpassing tech giants such as Amazon and Apple in revenue.
Walton shares an equity stake in the company founded by her father with her brothers Rob, Jim and John. She pursued a career in finance and even started her own investment bank, Rama, which she closed in 1998.
She is now a philanthropist and founded the nonprofit Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, to which she and the Walton family donated her art collection and 120 acres of land.
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