You may wonder, “Who is the richest woman in the world?”. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, there are presently no women among the world’s top 10 richest people. The number of women on the Forbes billionaires list increased to 328 from 241 the previous year. According to Forbes’ research, the women on the list have a combined net worth of US$1.53 trillion, representing an almost 60% rise in value over the previous year.
There are various sectors represented among the world’s richest women, including fashion and retail, food and beverage, and real estate. In addition, the visualization includes representations of a few well-known families. Alice Walton, for example, is the heir to the Walmart wealth, which she inherited from her father. Also, MacKenzie got a 25% interest in Jeff’s Amazon stock after their divorce, which equates to 4% of the company’s stock. In this article, we’ll take a look at the world’s Top 10 richest women in the world 2021.
10. Iris Fontbona & Family
Networth: $20.6 Billion
Iris Balbina Fontbona González is the matriarch of Chile’s wealthiest family, which owns Antofagasta, a mining corporation headquartered in Santiago that ranks as one of the world’s biggest copper producers. They have ownership over Banco de Chile; A copper-products and cable manufacturer (Invexans), a brewer (CCU), and a shipping business via the publicly listed Quinenco (CSAV). According to Forbes, she is the richest person in Chile; The fifth wealthiest person in Latin America. And also the eighth wealthiest woman globally. As well as the 91st wealthiest person in the world.
The loss of Fontbona’s spouse, Andrónico Luksic Abaroa, from cancer in 2005 was the catalyst for her accumulating her fortune. Her first big move after her husband’s death was to purchase a 70% interest in Chilean television station Canal 13. This was one of her first vital decisions after her husband’s death. She seems to have a great deal of influence inside the organization. She provides her approval for major business choices that will have an effect on the firm, which is mainly managed by her son, Andrónico Luksic Craig.
9. Gina Rinehart (Richest woman of Australia)
Networth: $22.4 Billion
Georgina Hope “Gina” Rinehart is an Australian mining mogul and heiress who inherited a fortune from her father. Currently, Rinehart serves as the Executive Chairman of Hancock Prospecting; A privately held mineral exploration and extraction business established by her father, Lang Hancock, in 1982. When Rinehart acquired Hancock Prospecting, the company’s entire worth was assessed to be A$75 million, which did not include the company’s group obligations and contingent liabilities, according to the Australian Financial Review. Her leadership witnessed the company’s growth throughout the next decade, and as a result of the iron ore boom of the early 2000s, she was able to declare herself a notional billionaire in 2006.
After acquiring a number of businesses in the mining sector, Rinehart started to diversify her assets in the 2010s. With substantial investments in Ten Network Holdings and Fairfax Media, she also ventured into agriculture, purchasing a number of cattle ranches in the process. Rinehart is one of the wealthiest individuals in Australia. Her fortune reached about A$29 billion in 2012, at which time she surpassed Christy Walton to become the world’s wealthiest woman. She was also named to the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, which was published in 2012. In March 2021, The Australian Business Review reported that she had a net worth of approximately $36.28 billion.
In 2020, Forbes magazine ranked Rinehart as one of the world’s top 10 richest women. It was revealed in a Guardian Australia investigation in May 2021 that Rinehart was the single biggest landowner in Australia. With approximately 9.2 million hectares (23 million acres) of land, accounting for little more than 1% of the country’s entire landmass.
8. Yang Huiyan & Family
Networth: $26.7 Billion
Yang Huiyan is a Chinese-born entrepreneur and property developer whos worth $26.7 billion dollars. Huiyan became a billionaire at the age of 25. In addition to being a naturalized Cypriot citizen in 2018, she also has the main interest in Country Garden Holdings, which was primarily handed to her by her father Yang Guoqiang in 2007. She is the wealthiest woman in Asia, according to Forbes. Her father, Yang Guoqiang, founded the real estate business Country Garden in 1997 and handed 70% of the company’s shares to her before the company’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2007. Country Garden’s first public offering garnered about $1.6 billion, which is comparable to the amount raised by Google in the United States in 2004.
She used to accompany her father when he had to attend a conference when she was a little child. Beginning at that moment, she began to study the ins and outs of the business world. She had a clear understanding of her father’s work from a young age. Also She had seen all of her father’s highs and lows. And she had always been at his side to console him. Therefore, she returned to China in 2005, immediately after the completion of her education. And began working as a purchasing manager for the business. She was putting in the effort and demonstrating her abilities. As a result of just one year on the job, she was promoted to executive director.
She is the ideal successor to her father’s business since she is well-versed in its operations and operations management. According to Forbes, Yang served as vice chairman of the board’s governance committee and raised $410 million via the sale of additional shares in 2014. Yang had a net worth of US$27.3 billion as of August 2021. But Yang Huiyan’s current net worth is $26.7 billion; as you can say, the last several months have not been kind to her.
7. Miriam Adelson (Richest Woman in Israel)
Networth: $28 Billion
Miriam Adelson is a physician who was born in Israel and raised in the United States. After her marriage to American business tycoon Sheldon Adelson in 1991, she began donating to conservative political organizations in both the United States and Israel, including the Republican Party. She is also the current owner of the newspaper “Israel Hayom”.
Adelson has a shareholding in Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which operates the world’s biggest casino complex. The Las Vegas-based company owns and operates casino resorts and convention centers in the United States and Asia, and expects to generate $3.6 billion in sales in 2020. In January 2021, Sheldon, her late husband, passed away. Sheldon was the group’s founding member and chairman. Adelson is the world’s 57th wealthiest person, the 7th richest woman, and the richest Israeli as of June 2021, according to Forbes, with an estimated value of $28 billion.
6. Susanne Klatten (Richest woman in Germany)
Networth: $28.8 Billion
Susanne Hanna Ursula Klatten is the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt. And also the heiress of a billion-dollar fortune in Germany. According to the Forbes Magazine, her net worth was projected to be US$28.3 billion as of May 2021. Making her the richest woman in Germany. And as well as the 65th richest person in the world. In the event of her father’s death, she received his 50.1% in the pharmaceutical and chemical company Altana Corporation.
She serves on Altana’s supervisory board and has played a key role in transforming the company into a world-class business that is included in the German DAX index of the top 30 corporations. Altana AG sold its pharmaceutical operations to Nycomed for €4.5 billion in 2006, leaving the company with just its speciality chemicals operations remaining. The €4.5 billion was paid out as a dividend to shareholders of the company. Altana’s stock market listing was retained, and Klatten remained the company’s primary stakeholder.
In 2009, she purchased almost all of the Altana stock that she did not already hold. Additionally, her father gave her a 12.50% in BMW; however, after her mother’s death in 2015, her stake in BMW has increased to 19.2%. In 1997, she and her brother Stefan Quandt were both appointed to the BMW supervisory board of directors.
5. Jacqueline Mars
Networth: $31.4 Billion
Jacqueline Mars is an American heiress who also happens to be an investor. She is the daughter of Forrest Mars, Sr., and his wife Audrey Ruth (Meyer). And she is also the granddaughter of Frank C. Mars, who was one of the founders of the American candy business Mars, Incorporated.
Mars Inc. is the world’s biggest confectionery, it is a joint venture between Mars and its shareholders. The tightly owned business, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, manufactures famous chocolates like M&Ms, Snickers, Milky Way, also gums like Juicy Fruit, Orbit, pet foods such as Pedigree, Whiskas, and packaged meals Ben’s Original, Suzi Wan among other things. In 2020, the company expects to generate more than $39 billion in sales.
4. Julia Koch & Family
Networth: $50.7 Billion
Mrs. Julia Margaret Flesher Koch is a well-known American socialite who is also a billionaire and philanthropist. She is also one of the world’s wealthiest women. Her wealth was because of her late husband, David Koch, who passed away in 2019.
Forbes estimates her and her family’s net worth to be $43 billion as of January 2020. Whereas Bloomberg calculates it to be $61.6 billion as of the same date. Mr. Koch was a former CEO and co-owner of Koch Industries; One of the biggest privately owned businesses in the United States in terms of sales at the time of his death. The Wichita, Kansas-based conglomerate engages in oil refining, pipeline construction, commodities trading, ranching, and paper pulp production, and generates about $115 billion in yearly sales.
A blind date with David Koch took place in January 1991, and she did not have a positive opinion of him after the encounter. The following is how she expressed her reaction; “I’m happy I met that guy because now I know I never want to go out with him again”. Later that year, the two reconnected at a party and began dating. She retired from her job in 1993. And also the couple exchanged vows in May 1996 at David Koch’s home on Meadow Lane in Southampton, England.
3. MacKenzie Scott
Networth: $57.3 Billion
MacKenzie Scott is a writer and philanthropist from the United States. She has a net worth of US$57.0 billion as of May 29, 2021, thanks to a 4% stake in Amazon that she acquired after her divorce from Amazon founder and former chief executive Jeff Bezos. Amazon is the largest internet retailer in the world. Founded in Seattle, the business offers a variety of items online, including electronics, home goods, and other products. The company also owns and operates the Whole Foods grocery chain and provides cloud computing and streaming services. Amazon had $386 billion in revenue in 2020. Because to her financial success, Scott is ranked third among top 10 richest women in the world 2021. As well as the 21st richest person in the planet.
She is well-known for her role in the creation and growth of Amazon, as well as for her now-dissolved marriage to Jeff Bezos, with whom she had two children. She is a signatory to the Giving Pledge, which entails a pledge to donate at least half of her fortune to charitable causes throughout her lifetime. In 2020, she will make philanthropic contributions totaling $5.8 billion. Making her one of the most generous individuals in the world when it comes to donating to functioning organizations. Scott also makes an additional donation of $2.7 billion in 2021.
2. Alice Walton (Richest woman in USA)
Networth: $65.3 Billion
Mrs. Alice Louise Walton is the heiress to the Walmart wealth, and she is an American businesswoman. According to the most recently available information, she held more than $11 billion worth of Walmart stock. Currently, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index; Walton has a net worth of $64.6 billion. Ranking her as the 17th wealthiest person on the planet. As well as the second among top 10 richest women in the world.
Walton is Sam Walton’s youngest child and the heir to the Walmart wealth that his father built. The Walton Family Holding Company, which she co-manages, is one of two family holding businesses that own about half of the world’s largest retailers. According to the company’s financial statements for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2021, it earned $559 billion.
1. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers & Family
Networth: $86.1 Billion
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is a wealthy French heiress who is also the world’s richest woman, according to Forbes magazine. Francoise is the granddaughter of L’Oreal‘s founder, Eugène Schueller. Bettencourt Meyers has a 33% stake in L’Oreal, the world’s biggest cosmetics company, according to Forbes. After her mother Liliane passed away in 2017, she became chairperson of the holding company that owns the family’s shareholding. She had held this position prior to Liliane’s death.
Aside from that, Bettencourt Meyers acts as the head of her family’s charitable organization; Which promotes French development in the sciences and the arts via grants. Following the April 2019 fire at Notre Dame Cathedral; L’Oreal and the Bettencourt Meyers family came to an agreement to contribute a total of $226 million to the cathedral’s restoration.
