World's Richest Families 2024: Waltons back on top after Walmart's stock surge

Nothing about the modest brick building on NW 2nd Street hints at the vast wealth coursing through it. 

The property, nestled in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas, is the home of Walton Enterprises — steward of the greatest family fortune in the world.

It is through this private investment office that the descendants of Sam Walton, penny-pinching founder of Walmart Inc., have bound themselves together as their wealth has accrued over generations.

And, oh, how it has accrued. Today, 62 years after the first true Walmart opened, the Waltons are richer than ever. Their combined fortune has shot to a record $432.4 billion, placing them back on top of the annual Bloomberg ranking of the world's wealthiest families.

You don't have to be a billionaire to grasp a gilded rule of the rich: Great wealth begets even greater wealth.

The Waltons, regulars on our list, keep getting richer for a simple reason: Walmart stock. As of Dec. 10, it was up 80% this year. The surge lifted the dynasty's combined wealth by $172.7 billion in 12 months — that's $473.2 million a day, or $328,577 a minute — eclipsing the fortunes of the Emirati royals who took the top spot on the Bloomberg list in 2023.

Sam Walton laid the foundations for this. He strategically divided his fortune among his children to maintain family control and ensure their wealth would keep growing.

Since his death in 1992, his heirs have hewed to a principle that has paid off handsomely for the Waltons and many other families on our list: stick together. Walton Enterprises has provided glue by overseeing most of the family's combined and ever-more-valuable stake in Walmart.

That principle is instructive for the scores of people poised to inherit trillions in the next quarter century. Families that have stayed united in ownership of major assets benefit from enhanced compounding and control. The families behind luxury brand Hermes and drugmaker Roche are among those with pacts ensuring cohesion.

Like the Waltons, most of the 25 families on the Bloomberg list got richer this year thanks to robust markets. Collectively, they gained $406.5 billion. Many are familiar names: the Johnsons (mutual funds and retirement accounts), the Thomsons (media), Mars and Ferrero (candy).

One new entrant is the Ofers, whose fortune originated with an Israeli shipping company. Today their empire spans multiple industries across the globe, with assets controlled separately by second-generation brothers Eyal and Idan.

Another newcomer: Chearavanont, a Thai dynasty whose conglomerate, CP Group, runs fish farms and 7-Eleven stores and makes animal feed, among other things.

Money can tear families apart. But it can also help keep the peace. Over the years, the Waltons have sold Walmart stock in steady increments to diversify their family portfolio and give family members the freedom to pursue other interests. The retailer today accounts for about 70% of the family fortune.

Sam Walton's descendants no longer have direct roles at Walmart. (His son Rob, 80, stepped down from the board this year, a move announced by Rob's son-in-law, Walmart board Chair Greg Penner.) And their money is starting to wind its way into areas far removed from discount retail.

Rob Walton, his daughter Carrie and her husband, Penner, paid a then-record $4.65 billion for the NFL's Denver Broncos in 2022 and have, on paper, made money.

Sam's daughter, Alice, 75, has funded a top-tier art museum that's gradually turned Bentonville into a cultural destination.

And Sam's grandson Lukas Walton, 38, has funneled some of his wealth into Builders Vision, a multi-pronged platform spanning investing, philanthropy and advocacy aimed at combating some of the planet's thorniest climate crises.

"When you empower individuals to pursue and support their own interests, the ROI is not only financial," said Nicole Clabaugh, vice president of client operations at Aquilance, which provides finance management tools to the ultra-wealthy. "It also gives them a sense of ownership in the preservation of wealth."