“You can do anything you want to do. Just think it through first.”
This is what Alice Walton remembers her father and Walmart founder Sam Walton told her every time, whether it was during a family camping trip or simple moments in her “great” childhood.
“I’d ask him, ‘Daddy, can I do this?’ His answer was always the same,” she recalled in a 2023 interview with Stanford Medicine. “My dad was always encouraging us to experiment, to adventure, to try new things.”
Little did Alice know that decades and several financial ventures later, his father’s unwavering faith in her abilities (and his power to grow a multi-billion dollar business) would help her earn the status of the richest woman in the world in 2025.
The Walmart heiress was named the world’s richest woman by Forbes after her net worth climbed to a record $101 billion. Alice is now richer by $28.7 billion than in 2024 because of the 40% increase in her 11% stake in the retail giant.
Alice has taken the crown from L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers of France, who was the world’s richest woman since 2021 and now ranks second, with an estimated net worth of $81.6 billion.
Alice topped the group of 406 women on the 2025 World Billionaires List published by Forbes on Wednesday, April 2. From this list, three-quarters inherited their fortunes, including Alice. Overall, the Walmart heiress ranks 15th on the list, with her brothers Rob and Jim ranking 11th and 12th, respectively. Altogether, they have been the world’s richest family since the 1990s.
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From middle-class to one of the world’s richest
Alice grew up pretty much like any child in a “middle-class American family” in Bentonville, Arkansas. She was the youngest and the only girl among her siblings, and a proud “Daddy’s girl.”
“My brothers and I went to Bentonville High School and we walked to school every day,” she said. “We all had little businesses; we had the lemonade stands that so many children have.“ And when Sam would travel for a business trip, he’d make sure to bring them along with him. “He’d take turns taking each of us,” Alice recounted.
Her first job, she said, was at their low-priced shop, called “Five and Dime,” where Walmart took its roots. “My first job was dusting China horses at the age of five, and then I graduated to wrapping presents for Christmas, but I wasn’t very good at that,” she said with a laugh.
Now 75 years old, Alice earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and later took her doctorate in Arts and Humane Letters from the University of Arkansas. After graduating from Trinity College in 1971, she briefly worked for Walmart as a buyer of children’s wear.
Three years later, in 1974, she married a famous Louisiana investment banker and lived in New Orleans. Here, Alice went on to become an equity analyst and money manager at First Commerce Corporation. She worked as a broker for EF Hutton as well. In 1977, she got divorced from her husband and returned to her hometown in Bentonville.
Alice then became the manager of the investment portfolios of the banks her father Sam acquired previously. These banks were later merged to form Arvest Bank, where Alice served as head of investment operations. In 1988, she founded the investment bank Llama Company, where she served as president, chair, and chief executive officer. It closed down after a decade.
Alice got married for the second time to a contractor, but that, too, was short-lived. Having no children, the Walmart heiress purchased land and developed a ranch instead. It became the start of her continuing hobby of raising competitive show horses.
I started thinking, I want to do something that could really make a difference in this part of the world. And my mom would always say, ‘Give the thing you love the most.’ And that was pretty easy. I love art.
Shaking the art industry, one foundation at a time
More than anything, the billionaire’s passion and goals have been focused on art curation. Alice fell in love with art at such an early age. “As a child, my mother and I painted watercolors of nature during our travels to our country’s magnificent national parks,” she said. “I was a frustrated painter. I knew I could never capture the beauty and inspiration of the American land, but I tried my best.”
She then turned to art collecting, with her first work of art purchased at the age of 11. It was as 25-cent print of Picasso’s “Blue Nude.” In the next decades, Alice’s collection grew massively into a museum-worthy collection, which now forms the basis of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
The Walmart heiress opened Crystal Bridges in 2005 not only as a museum but also as a “community center and cultural center where people would want to hangout.” Built to “increase access to art for all,” The 134-acre property houses her art collection now worth around $500 million, according to Business Insider. It includes works by American artists Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, and Georgia O’Keefe.
Alice told Stanford Medicine that Crystal Bridges stemmed from her long-held desire to make a difference in the world, particularly in the art sector. She explained, “You know when I was growing up, it was a four-hour drive to the art museum. So art wasn’t part of our lives. I started thinking, I want to do something that could really make a difference in this part of the world. And my mom would always say, ‘Give the thing you love the most.’ And that was pretty easy. I love art.”
Taking from the success of Crystal Bridges, the philanthropist expanded her advocacy to the rest of the United States, with the formation of her Art Bridges foundation. The organization, established in 2017, provides funding to museums for their exhibits and engagement programs that connect with local communities.
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In the same year, the billionaire founded the Alice L. Walton Foundation, a non-profit organization that is also committed to increasing access to the arts, as well as improving education and enhancing health and economic opportunities for all. Most recently, the Walton heiress built a medical facility, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine.
Through it all, each of Alice’s ventures—from finance to arts and healthcare—is still grounded on what her father Sam showed her in the beginning: that anything is possible if you have a positive mindset.
“That doesn’t mean that you don’t analyze and look for the problems you have to solve, you can do all of that, but you have to do that from a positive space,” she continued. “And I think, really understanding how to stay in that positive space is part of what a great leader is.”
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