Jim Walton is the newest member of the $100 billion club.
According to Bloomberg’s rich list, only 15 people on the planet have a $100 billion-plus net worth. Jim’s siblings, Rob and Alice, rank 16th and 17th with net worths of $98.3 billion and $97.7 billion each, meaning they’ll likely join him soon.
Jim’s fortune has swelled by about $28 billion this year to $101 billion, fueled by a 50% rise in Walmart stock to a record high. The three Waltons have also received over $15 billion each from stock sales and dividends over the years, per Bloomberg.
The likes of Musk, Bezos, and now Jim Walton command $100 billion-plus net worths because they own vast amounts of stock in some of the world’s most valuable companies.
Walmart founder Sam Walton shrewdly gave 20% of his future retail empire to each of his four children over 70 years ago, in 1953. By organizing his business as a family partnership and giving his kids their stakes when he only owned a couple of stores, instead of handing down his wealth after he died a billionaire in 1992, he saved them a fortune in estate taxes.
Jim, 76, has led several of Walmart’s businesses over the years, including a bank and a community newspaper. After his brother, John T., died in 2005, Jim replaced him on Walmart’s board and remained a director until he retired in 2016.
The late John T. left the bulk of his fortune to his son Lukas, now the world’s 45th wealthiest person with a $34.9 billion net worth, and wife Christy, the 128th richest with $15.7 billion.
The five wealthiest Waltons are together worth nearly $350 billion — a figure that dwarfs Coca-Cola’s market value of $306 billion.
Walmart has grown from a single five-and-dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas, into a retail behemoth that generates $600 billion in net sales a year, employs 1.6 million Americans or roughly 1% of the US workforce, and ranks among the world’s largest companies with a market value of $634 billion.
The corporate titan has benefited from resilient consumer spending during a period of historic inflation and surging interest rates. Its stock has jumped this year as investors bet on prices to stabilize, rates to fall, and the US economy to escape a recession.
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