Walmart heir Rob Walton just retired from the retailer's board after 4 decades. He and his 2 siblings are worth a combined $228 billion — more than Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk.
REUTERS/Rick Wilking
- Walmart heir Rob Walton just stepped down from the retailer's board after four decades.
- He and his two siblings have added more than $100 billion to their net worth in recent years.
- Their gains have been fueled by Walmart stock, which hit a record high in March.
Walmart heir Rob Walton just stepped down from the retailer's board after four decades. He and his two siblings have more than doubled their money since 2016, adding more than $100 billion to their combined fortunes.
Legendary founder Sam Walton's three surviving children — Rob, Jim, and Alice — all rank highly on the Forbes rich list with personal fortunes of between $72 billion and $79 billion. They were less than half as wealthy in 2016.
They're now worth a combined $228 billion, making them richer as a trio than the top three people on the list: Bernard Arnault ($214 billion), Jeff Bezos ($195 billion), or Elon Musk ($192 billion).
Their wealth has ballooned in recent years thanks to Walmart stock, which has surged from below $20 in 2016 to more than $60.
It's jumped 14% this year already, fueled by resilient consumer demand and investors' hopes that interest rates will be cut and the economy will escape a recession.
The Walton trio have garnered more than $45 billion in total from stock sales and dividends over the years, per Bloomberg. Together with other relatives, they own more than 1.25 billion shares, or more than 45% of the company — a stake valued at over $220 billion.
The Waltons as a whole were worth an estimated $267 billion in mid-January, a Forbes ranking of America's richest families found. They were more than twice as wealthy as the Mars dynasty.
It's striking that Walmart's founding family owns such a big chunk of a public company worth almost $500 billion, and has several members on the board.
Many uber-rich families prefer to keep their companies private. That's the case with Mars, Koch Industries, Cargill, Fidelity, Publix, Chick-fil-A, and others.