Admit it. We keep hearing some few dominant names of the richest men in the world, but little do we know that women also have fiercely tripled their monetary value of almost $200 billion combined according to Forbes in 2021! Don’t worry, we’re trimming down a few super-rich female personalities in the United States for you. And mind you, who knows you might be neighbors with one of them!
This Post is about the top 3 richest women in the United States!
Number 3:
Mackenzie Scott
Net Worth: $46.8 billion
Formerly married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, we have the 30th richest person in America, Mackenzie Scott earning a spot at number 3. Born in California in 1970, despite at a very young age, Mackenzie claims to have developed her passion for writing and decided to seriously work on it at age 6. Yes, you heard that right. That moment when you were still struggling to even write your own name, our girl Mackenzie already was nailing it!
Mackenzie isn’t your typical vampire lover-inspired novelist. In fact, in 2005, she wrote her debut novel “The Testing of Luther Albright” which is an intense story of emotional loss and practical resilience garnering a positive reception and reviews from readers and media outlets like the New York Times, The Independent and Publishers Weekly to name a few. According to her, it took about 10 years to finish the said novel because she was helping her then-husband, Jeff Bezos, with managing Amazon and eventually gave birth to her 3 children and raised them. Tony Morrison, Mackenzie’s teacher at Princeton University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English, reviewed the book as “a rarity: a sophisticated novel that breaks and swells the heart”. Mackenzie’s debut novel won the 2006 American Book Award and began writing for her second novel “Traps” in 2013. We won’t spoil it for you, of course. Make reading a habit!
Mackenzie’s marriage with Bezos lasted from 1993 to 2019. She became one of the very first employees when they were still starting Amazon in his garage upon moving to Seattle. She was immensely involved in Amazon’s early operations and development where she worked on the nitty-gritty of establishing the company including its name, business plan and even negotiated the company’s first freight contract to name a few. She could win an Oscar’s equivalent of being the Best Employee Ever!
Being a billionaire’s wife isn’t as easy as it may sound, not that I can relate to but something to put into serious consideration, but her marriage with the richest person in the world who beat tech mogul Elon Musk in 2021, has undeniably gained her another level of popularity and quite even more with her divorce from Bezos.
Considered as the biggest divorce settlement in 2019, or probably in the universe, Jeff Bezos handed over a 4% stake in Amazon to his former wife and about $38 billion worth of the online retail giant’s shares officially to Mackenzie’s name. Yeah, it is indeed the biggest divorce settlement in the world as of this publication compared to the previous list of $2.5 billion for Jocelyn Wildenstein divorce with art dealer Alec Wildenstein in 1999. What a whopping difference! Who’s ready to beat that record?
The 51-year-old novelist and officially one of the richest persons in the world has already promised to donate at least half of her fortune which she referred to as “a disproportionate amount of money to share” and pledged on giving it away “until the safe is empty”.
She made a heartfelt declaration letter to the Giving Pledge, a charity created by Warren Buffett, currently 6th richest person in the world and Microsoft’s principal founder, Bill Gates, to encourage the world’s wealthiest to commit to donating at least half their fortune to philanthropic causes.
Even though Mackenzie is no longer a Bezos, quite frankly with all the contributions she did, she is still worthy to be called Mrs. Amazon.
Number 2:
Julia Koch
Net Worth: $53.5 billion
Born in 1962, this 24th richest person in America is a family member of one of the wealthiest in the country. Julia Koch spent her childhood days in Iowa working for her parent’s furniture shop and their family farm. She moved to New York in the 1980s and worked as an assistant to a fashion designer where she then met David Koch, the well-known philanthropist who gave more than $1.3 billion away to such institutions as New York’s Lincoln Center and Memorial-Sloan Kettering and the 11th Richest Billionaire of 2019 according to Forbes who controlled Koch industries, the 2nd largest private firm in the U.S.
Julia and David met on a blind date in 1991 and it wasn’t love at first sight just like any fairytale-ish movie we’ve ever seen. However, their story is proof that sometimes love is sweeter the second time around. Julia and David met again a year later at a gathering and started to give dating a try which eventually led them to tie the knot in 1996.
Julia and David Koch lived in Manhattan in 2004 after moving from an apartment on 5th avenue. This legendary 740 Park Avenue is a luxury cooperative apartment building on the west side of Park Avenue in the Lenox Hill neighborhood of Manhattan has been and is still regarded as the most luxurious residential building in New York City and became a staple haven to wealthy Americans like John D. Rockefeller. This deluxe Manhattan abode was built in 1929 and opened its doors in October of 1930 at the time of the depression and rose to popularity in the 1980s as prices for apartments rose as well. Reportedly, one cannot easily just go and tell the lobby guy you’re interested in owning a property unless you’d be so much willing to disclose your liquid net worth of only about $100 million to get admission. But just a heads up! Before you proceed with your application, just a little reminder and sad news that even Barbara Streisand and Neil Sedaka along with other wealthy personalities were reportedly rejected, which led us to conclude that wealth couldn’t be the only factor they consider.
Julia and their three children, David Jr., Mary Julia and John Mark, inherited 42% of Koch industries after David Koch’s death in 2019 which earned Julia a spot on the list of the top 10 richest women in the world and currently appointed as one of the board of directors of Koch industries with an estimated annual revenue of $115 billion where aside from being a giant in the oil industry have acquired a number of companies and subsidiaries such as the $22.5 billion acquisition of Georgia Pacific, a notable American manufacturer and distributor of pulp and paper-based products like Brawny paper towels, Quilted Northern bath tissue and Dixie cups and tableware headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Julia is currently the president of the David H. Koch Foundation which was accordingly given nearly $200 million to support a variety of causes including science and medical research education, the arts and many more.
Number 1:
Alice Walton
Net Worth: $66.4 billion
And finally, the last and definitely the richest, currently holding the 19th spot in the world according to Forbes, is a staple name in the list as Walmart is in every American home.
Alice Louise Walton, an heiress to the massive fortune of Walmart, a retail giant in the United States that her father, Sam Walton, founded in 1962 and valued approximately at $93.2 billion in 2021, was born in 1949 in Newport, Arkansas and was raised along with her three brothers namely:
- Samuel Robson Walton, aka “Rob” – born in 1944, the eldest son of the Waltons was chairman of Walmart from 1992 to 2015. He received his Juris Doctordegree from Columbia Law School in 1969 and became a member of the law firm that represented Walmart, Conner & Winters in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Currently, Rob has a net worth of $62.2 billion.
- John Walton – born in 1946, an American war veteran, and was the chairman of True North Venture Partners, a venture capital He co-founded the Children’s Scholarship Fund, providing tuition scholarships for disadvantaged youth. John died in 2005 when his plane, which he co-piloted, crashed in Jackson, Wyoming. He was valued at approximately $18.2 billion following his death.
- James Carr Walton, aka “Jim” – born in 1948, he was president of his junior class in Bentonville High School and was also into football and piloting. He earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing at the University of Arkansas in 1971. He joined Walmart in 1972 and was involved in real-estate dealings. Jim became the Chairman of Arvest Bank which is owned by their family. Jim currently has a net worth of $63.4 billion.
In a span of time, Walmart grew massively as the world’s largest company by revenue of over $540 billion and approximately has over 10,500 Walmart stores and clubs in 24 countries, operating under 48 different names that employ about 2.2 million people.
Unlike his brothers, the only daughter of the Waltons has lived and worked most of her life outside the walls of Walmart. After leaving his father’s company, Alice established herself as a finance expert and later on opened her own investment bank, Llama Company, a subsidiary of Walton Enterprises, which she had to close down after 10 years.
She has focused on curating art and is an avid art collector which later paved the way for her to open the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in her hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas in 2011 which featured some artworks from the likes of Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell and Mark Rothko.
She was involved in a lot of philanthropic causes as well and was at the forefront in setting up Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport by donating generously with its funding.
Whether you get inspired or envious, we can’t argue the fact that these women have the capability of doing almost anything with the massive fortune they have. Inherited or through settlement, and whether you like it or not, they don’t care.. I mean they are still billionaires!
