25 Richest Families In The World Are Worth More Than $1 Trillion

Ned and daughter Abigail (no relation to J&J or S.C. Johnson) own Fidelity Investments, one of the U.S.’s largest mutual fund companies. With more than $16 billion, she’s the richest person in Massachusetts. Maria-Elisabeth and her son Georg are the owners of Schaeffler Group, one of the world’s largest producers of ball bearings. Giovanni , the third-generation scion of Ferrero, the third-largest confectionary company in the world, is chairman. His mother Maria Franca Fissolo is Italy’s richest person, with $25.2 billion, beating her son by $1.6 billion. Last year St. Louis billionaire Jack Taylor died at 94, leaving behind his Enterprise rental car company in a year that saw a record $20.9 billion in revenue.

The family was once ranked as the wealthiest family by Fortune Magazine in 1988, but later it was surpassed by Walton Family. The company was founded by Franklin Clarence Mars as he invented the Milky Way Bar in 1923. The business was handed over to his grandson and granddaughter after the death of his son Forrest Mars.

Computer scientist Sergey Brin co-founded Google with Larry Page back in 1998, and is currently the president of the search engine's parent company Alphabet Inc. At the time of writing, his net worth stands at $119.7 billion (£87.6bn). Brin's ex-wife Anne Wojcicki, with whom he has two children, is the co-founder and CEO of personal genomics firm 23andMe, and is independently estimated to be worth over $500 million (£361m). After the authorities shut down his profitable fireworks factory in World War II, entrepreneur Oei Wie Gwan founded clove cigarette firm Djarum. Today, the brothers have a combined fortune of $38.8 billion (£28bn). Retail royalty, the Mulliez family has been involved in the industry since the 19th century when patriarch Louis Mulliez-Lestienne founded clothing chain Phildar in the northern French city of Roubaix.

Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, one of the world’s largest businesses in terms of yearly revenue, and the world’s largest private employer, with little over 2.2 million employees. Alice Walton also has a net worth of $60.1 billion, making her the world’s 14th wealthiest person and the richest woman. Late brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht founded Aldi in 1946 in Essen. The supermarket chain split into two different entities in 1960, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, after the siblings disagreed over whether to stock cigarettes. Both groups went on to expand internationally, and Aldi Nord snapped up US chain Trader Joe's in 1979.

The German pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim was founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer. One of the richest families in real estate, the Goldman clan owns more than 700 properties across the country as well as stakes in the World Trade Center developments in lower Manhattan, says Forbes. The Ambani family is the wealthiest family of India and is the owner of Asia’s biggest conglomerate Reliance Industries. Reliance was founded by Dhirubhai Ambani in 1957, and the company oversees refining, petrochemicals, oil, gas, and textiles, and both brothers have their own telecommunication company. Mukesh Ambani has the biggest telecommunication company, Jio of India, and Ani’s elder son, Anmol, is also the executive director of Reliance Capital.

The chain has also been called the "Walmart of France." Association Familiale Mulliez, the family holding company, also controls Leroy Merlin, a home improvement chain, and Decathlon, a sports equipment retailer. The Johnson family is behindSC Johnson, which produces cleaning products such as Pledge, Glade, and Windex.The company was founded by its namesake in 1882 and was eventually taken over by son Herbert Fisk Johnson. Fifth-generation Herbert Fisk Johnson III acts as the current CEO and chairman of the company. Today, his descendants control Tetra Laval, one of the world's biggest packaging companies, which is comprised of Tetra Pak, Sidel, and DeLaval, per Bloomberg. Since being listed in the 1970s by Kwok Tak-seng, Sun Hung Kai powerful families Properties has evolved into one of the biggest property developers in Hong Kong. Thomas and Raymond Kwok control the company after ousting their third brother, Walter Kwok, in 2008 following a feud, Business Insider previously reported.

In March 2020, CP Group made a successful $10.6 billion (£7.6bn) bid to buy Tesco's operations in Thailand and Malaysia. What Warren Buffett once described as his “worst deal” proved to be the best thing that ever happened to the Alfond family. In 1993, Harold Alfond sold his Maine-based Dexter Shoe Company to Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for $433 million—in stock. Alfond’s estate, which he left to his four children , was estimated to be worth $3 billion when he died in 2007.

Like his brother, Peter is also a private equity investor and serves on numerous boards. Piedmontese confectioner Michele Ferrero created the iconic Nutella spread in 1964, and oversaw the expansion of the clan's chocolate empire. Pietro died in a biking accident in 2011 and Michele passed away in 2015, leaving Giovanni as the sole heir.

The company currently cooperates in the areas of consumer goods, forestry, coffee, fast food, and luxury goods. They also have some minority stake in the consumer products company Reckitt Benckiser. They have majority stakes in Coty, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee Company, and Einstein Noah Restaurant Group and in Jimmy Choo. Together some of the families possess a lot of money, and today we will see the wealthiest families all over the globe. The Walton family fortune is dispersed among three generations of family members, including cofounder Sam Walton's three children, Rob, Jim, and Alice; who is one of the richest women in the world with a $56.8 billion fortune. The three Belgian families of Van Damme, de Spoelberch, and de Mevius share claim to more than $54 billion in wealth from beer company Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The combined net worth of the five generations of the families fell more than that of any other family on this ranking —$16 billion — per Bloomberg. The Quandt family is Germany's wealthiest family, thanks to their nearly 50% stake in luxury vehicle maker BMW. They also have stakes in Logwin, a German logistics company, and Gemalto, a security software company. The Koch family’s fortune dropped by $15 billion from 2019 to 2020, and the current political climate in Hong Kong has had a negative impact on the Kwok family’s real estate empire. The Scudder Family,John Pitman, Chandrani Ghosh, David Armstrong, The Dynasties, Forbes, 28 February 2002.