She breeds horses and collects works of art. What is known about the richest woman in the world, whose fortune reaches $870 million

Alice Walton, the sole heiress to the fortune of the American retail corporation Walmart, has been recognized as the richest woman in the world. As of August 15, 2024, she is on the 19th line of the Bloomberg list.

The three Walmart heirs, Rob Walton, Jim Walton, and Alice Walton, have a combined fortune of more than $250 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The entrepreneur has even overtaken Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the heiress of L'Oreal, Business Insider reports.

Despite Walton's high status, their personal life remains mostly private. Read on to find out what is known about the multibillionaire and how she spends her money.

Alice Walton, the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is the richest woman in the world

Walton and L'Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers are regularly ranked first.

Unlike her brothers Rob and Jim, Alice Walton has never been actively involved in the management of Walmart but instead has become a patron of the arts.

According to the New Yorker profile, the businesswoman fell in love with art at a young age. At the age of 10, she bought her first piece of art: a $2 reproduction of a Picasso painting, she told the publication. After graduating from Trinity University in 1971, Walton briefly joined the family business, working at Walmart as a children's clothing buyer.

But her career really began in finance, which led her to found the investment bank Llama Company in 1988. The billionaire has been married and divorced twice and has no children.

She has a huge private collection of works of art

"Collecting has been such a joy and such an important part of my life in terms of seeing art and loving it," she told The New Yorker. In 2011, she opened the $50 million Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, where she housed her private collection worth $500 million.

In 2014, the Walmart heiress paid $44.4 million for a work by Georgia O'Keeffe. It was the most expensive work by a female artist in history. Later, Walton exhibited it in her museum.

Walton has donated millions to the arts

In January 2016, Walton donated 3.7 million of her own shares in Walmart, which were worth about $225 million at the time, to a family nonprofit organization, the Walton Family Foundation. The following year, the charity donated $120 million to the University of Arkansas to establish the School of the Arts. She also has her own charitable organization, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, which, according to its website, donates to the arts, education, and healthcare. Walton has also invested some of her money in politics.

Walton used to raise horses in Texas

"I've been involved in a lot of areas, and I want to focus," Walton said in 2017. "I have a house in Fort Worth, so I'm moving to the city.

In 2017, she sold her ranch in Texas for an undisclosed amount. The initial asking price for Rocking W Ranch was $19.75 million but was later reduced to $16.5 million. The ranch had more than 250 acres of pastures and outbuildings for cattle and horses.

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