1. Walton Family – Walmart
Estimated Wealth: $190.5 billion.
Founded by Sam Walton in Arkansas in 1962, Walmart is now the world’s largest company, by 2019 revenues, with $514.4 billion, and over 1.5 million U.S. associates, according to its corporate website. If those people constituted their own city, it would be the fourth most populous American city, after New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The company operates nearly 12,000 retail stores worldwide and 5,362 stores in the U.S., as of Aug. 2019.4
2. Mars Family – Mars
Estimated Wealth: $126.5 billion.
Mars is the Walmart of candy: a multi-generational family business that is ubiquitous, cheap, and popular. Today the company is better known for making M&Ms than for its eponymous Mars bar. In 2017, the world’s largest candy company diversified with the purchase of VAC, a pet care company, for $9.1 billion.
Siblings Jacqueline and John Mars, whose grandfather Frank Mars founded the company, each has a net worth of $23.9 billion, tied for #33 in 2019 on the Forbes annual list of billionaires. The company is now being run by some of their children, the fourth generation of Mars family members.
3. Koch Brothers – Koch Industries
Estimated Wealth: $124.5 billion.
Charles and David Koch owe their staggering fortune to an oil business founded by their father, but today are perhaps better known to the general public for their politics, digging into their deep pockets to place their stamp on politics: financing candidates and libertarian think tanks, funding university professorships, and lobbying for policy positions, all aimed at furthering a conservative agenda. The brothers are worth an estimated $50.5 billion each, tied for the #11 spot on Forbes billionaire list.
4. Al Saud – Saudi Royal Family
Estimated Wealth: $100 billion.
The House of Saud, the Saudi royal family has a monarchical history extending back nearly a century. The family’s massive fortune, estimated at $100 billion, has grown thanks to decades of payments from the Royal Diwan, the king’s executive office. Ties with Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company and a behemoth of the oil industry, ensure that the Saudi royal family continues to accumulate wealth. It’s difficult to accurately assess the wealth of the House of Saud, in part because the family contains as many as 15,000 extended members, many of whom have founded businesses, received government contracts and more.
5. Wertheimer Family – Chanel
Estimated Net Worth: $57.6 billion.
French high fashion house Chanel is legendary for the timeless “little black dress,” the No. 5 perfume, and the deceased, high-profile designer Karl Lagerfeld, who died on February 19, 2019. Brothers Alan and Gerhard Wertheimer now co-own the company that their grandfather staked with founder Gabrielle Coco Chanel.
