Top 10 richest women in the world: Even though the billionaire club is still largely dominated by men, women are slowly gaining a bigger share. In the latest Forbes World’s Billionaires list, 481 of the world’s 3,428 billionaires are women, making up 14 per cent of the ranking. This marks a slight rise from last year, when women accounted for 406 names or 13.4 per cent of the list.

For the second year in a row, the title of the world’s richest woman goes to Alice Walton. The Walmart heiress is now worth an estimated $134 billion. Strong growth in the retailer’s revenue and profits helped push its share price up by 41 per cent since the last annual ranking. The company also hit a $1 trillion market valuation just two days after John Furner took over as CEO in February, raising expectations around his leadership.

Following Walton are French cosmetics fortune L’Oréal heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and American philanthropist Julia Koch, with estimated net worths of $100 billion and $81.2 billion, respectively.

At No 4 is Chile’s richest woman, Iris Fontbona, worth $52.6 billion. She moved ahead of candy and pet-food empire heir Jacqueline Mars, whose fortune of $49.1 billion placed her at No. 5 this year.

The only self-made entrepreneur among the world’s 10 richest women is Swiss shipping magnate Rafaela Aponte-Diamant. With a net worth of $44.5 billion, she slipped one position to No. 6. She remains the wealthiest among 122 female billionaires who built their fortunes themselves, an increase from 113 such women a year ago.

The next most successful self-made woman is American business leader Diane Hendricks, whose wealth is estimated at $22.3 billion. She and her late husband, Ken, started roofing distributor ABC Supply in 1982 with a $900,000 bank loan. After his death in 2007, Hendricks expanded the company through acquisitions. It reported a record $20.7 billion in revenue in 2024 and is now counted among the largest privately held firms and best employers in the US, according to Forbes.

Among the most recognisable self-made billionaires are global entertainment icons like Beyoncé, who debuted on the list this year with a $1 billion fortune. She joins familiar names such as Rihanna ($1 billion), Sara Blakely ($1.4 billion), and Taylor Swift ($2 billion).

Another newcomer is Brazilian entrepreneur Luana Lopes Lara, worth $1.3 billion. A former ballerina and an MIT graduate, she helped build prediction-market startup Kalshi into an $11 billion company in just six years. At 29, she is now the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, taking the title from Lucy Guo ($1.4 billion), who had earlier taken the distinction from Swift.

Meanwhile, philanthropists Melinda French Gates ($30.3 billion) and Marilyn Simons ($32.5 billion) dropped out of the top 10 after featuring last year. They were replaced by Chile’s Fontbona and Chinese businesswoman Zheng Shuliang, who is worth $33.2 billion and serves as vice chair of the aluminium products company founded by her late husband.

In India, Savitri Jindal retains the title of the richest woman, with an estimated net worth of $39.1 billion. She ranks third among the country’s top 10 richest individuals, is the seventh-richest woman globally, and the only Indian woman in the global top 10.

Savitri Jindal oversees a sprawling industrial empire spanning steel, energy, cement, and infrastructure, originally built by her late husband, O P Jindal, founder of the Jindal Group.

Source: Forbes