(Business Insider) - Walmart heir Rob Walton just stepped down from the retailer's board after four decades. He and his two siblings have more than doubled their money since 2016, adding more than $100 billion to their combined fortunes.
Legendary founder Sam Walton's three surviving children — Rob, Jim, and Alice — all rank highly on the Forbes rich list with personal fortunes of between $72 billion and $79 billion. They were less than half as wealthy in 2016.
They're now worth a combined $228 billion, making them richer as a trio than the top three people on the list: Bernard Arnault ($214 billion), Jeff Bezos ($195 billion), or Elon Musk ($192 billion).
Their wealth has ballooned in recent years thanks to Walmart stock, which has surged from below $20 in 2016 to more than $60.
It's jumped 14% this year already, fueled by resilient consumer demand and investors' hopes that interest rates will be cut and the economy will escape a recession.
The Walton trio have garnered more than $45 billion in total from stock sales and dividends over the years, per Bloomberg. Together with other relatives, they own more than 1.25 billion shares, or more than 45% of the company — a stake valued at over $220 billion.
The Waltons as a whole were worth an estimated $267 billion in mid-January, a Forbes ranking of America's richest families found. They were more than twice as wealthy as the Mars dynasty.
It's striking that Walmart's founding family owns such a big chunk of a public company worth almost $500 billion, and has several members on the board.
Many uber-rich families prefer to keep their companies private. That's the case with Mars, Koch Industries, Cargill, Fidelity, Publix, Chick-fil-A, and others.
By Theron Mohamed
