L’Oreal heiress dethroned as world’s richest woman by family dynasty that tops Fortune 500

Françoise Bettencourt Meyers stunned the world when, late last year, she became the first woman to amass a $100 billion fortune by owning cosmetics giant L’Oreal.

She held the title of richest woman for several months, even though her fortune has fallen to $89.9 billion since the beginning of the year.

Now, Bettencourt Meyers has just lost the crown to the heiress of another transatlantic business empire.

Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, has seen her fortune grow to $95.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Walmart shares are up more than 43% so far in 2024, bolstering Walton’s fortunes in the process.

The two women come from families with enduring legacies in beauty and mass retail, respectively. L’Oreal was founded 115 years ago in Paris and ranks 90th in the Fortune 500 Europe ranking. Meanwhile, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, ranked No. 1 on the Fortune 500 list for the 12th year in a row, with annual revenue of $648 billion for fiscal year 2024.

The multi-generational fortune L’Oreal

Bettencourt Meyers, 71, is an academic by training. She serves as president of the family holding company that controls the majority of L’Oreal, called Téthys. She is also the vice chairman of the board of directors of the company her grandfather founded in the early 20th century.

Bettencourt Meyers and her family own about 35% of the beauty group, which was passed down from her mother, Liliane, after she died in 2017. The heiress is known to be private, so little is known about her life outside L’Oreal. Her two sons have seats on the company’s board of directors.

L’Oreal, which owns well-known brands such as Lancome, Aesop, La Roche Posay and Maybelline, has become a global company. While it has had its fair share of struggles with stagnant business and sluggish demand in China, it has posted strong gains recently.

The company is one of France’s crown jewels in the business world. But Bettencourt Meyers’ fortune is far behind that of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, whose net worth currently stands at $196 billion.

Walmart heiress and richest woman in the world

Walton is a philanthropist and the 18th richest person in the world today. She heads one of two family-owned companies, Walton Enterprises, that runs Walmart. That is where Walton derives much of her wealth.

Walmart has been amazingly successful as America’s largest brick-and-mortar retail and e-commerce company. The company strengthened its position by offering the lowest prices and being easily accessible to the average American through its affiliates such as Sam’s Club. The company reached $1 billion in annual sales in 1980 and has managed to retain its power as a corporate giant, surpassing the revenues of tech giants such as Amazon and Apple.

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Walton shares a stake in the company her father founded with her brothers, Rob, Jim and John. She pursued a career in finance and even started her own investment bank, Llama Co., which closed up shop in 1998.

She is now a philanthropist and founded the non-profit Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, to which she and the Waltons gave their art collection as well as 120 acres of land.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com