The Walton family, founders of Walmart, top Bloomberg's 2024 list of the world's richest families with a net worth of $432.4 billion, largely due to an 80% rise in Walmart stock. They are followed by the Al Nahyan family of the UAE and the Al Thani family of Qatar. The Hermès family and the Koch family round out the top five. The Walton family's wealth is primarily from Walmart, but they have diversified into other sectors like sports and philanthropy.
The Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune, have become the world's richest family with a net worth of $432 billion, driven by a surge in Walmart's stock value. The retail giant's success is attributed to its e-commerce growth and appeal to affluent customers, outpacing competitors like Target. Despite the family's immense wealth, Walmart faces criticism for low wages among its 2 million employees, though it has recently increased pay to remain competitive.
High-profile CEOs, founders, and heirs, including Jeff Bezos, Leon Black, Jamie Dimon, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Walton family, have collectively sold $11 billion in company stock this month, with share prices trading near all-time highs. Many of the sales were made through 10b5-1 trading plans, while some were outside of these plans. The sales are speculated to be a result of potential political changes and tax breaks, with experts suggesting that the executives are diversifying their holdings and taking advantage of the current market conditions.
The Walton family, owners of Walmart, has been bumped from the top spot as the world's richest dynasty by the Al Nahyan family, rulers of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, according to Bloomberg's world's richest families list for 2023. The Al Nahyan family holds $305 billion, surpassing the Waltons' $259.7 billion. The report highlights the significant wealth amassed by petroleum fortunes and notes that the richest families collectively added $1.5 trillion to their wealth in the past year.
