America’s richest women are having another record-setting year. The 62 women who earned a place on the 2026 Forbes 400 are now worth a combined $954 billion, according to Forbes. That is an $82 billion jump from their collective $872 billion fortune in 2025. Even more striking, 70% of the women who returned to the ranking are wealthier than they were a year ago.
Their fortunes span retail, technology, finance, food, energy and some of America’s best-known family businesses. At the very top sits Walmart heiress Alice Walton, whose estimated $118 billion fortune makes her the richest woman in America for the fourth consecutive year.
© Getty ImagesWho Are the Richest Women in America in 2026?
The 2026 Forbes 400 has become harder to enter than ever. This year, a person needed a record $4.4 billion fortune to make the ranking, up $600 million from last year. Collectively, all 400 members are worth a record $8 trillion.
Women still account for only about 16% of the list. There are 62 women on the 2026 Forbes 400, unchanged from 2025. Nearly 80% inherited at least some of their wealth, while 13 are classified by Forbes as self-made.
Here are the 10 richest women in America
10. MacKenzie Scott: $27.9 Billion
MacKenzie Scott ranks No. 10 with an estimated fortune of $27.9 billion, with Amazon listed as the source of her wealth.
© Todd WilliamsonScott has also become one of the most closely watched philanthropists in the country. Forbes notes that she is among the relatively small number of Forbes 400 members who have given away more than 20% of their fortunes.
9. Lyndal Stephens Greth & Family: $30 Billion
Lyndal Stephens Greth and her family are worth an estimated $30 billion, with their fortune coming from oil and gas. The 51-year-old ranks ninth among America’s richest women.
© The Dallas Morning News via Gett8. Elaine Marshall & Family: $32.2 Billion
Elaine Marshall and her family have an estimated net worth of $32.2 billion. Their wealth is tied to Koch, Inc., putting Marshall among several women near the top of the ranking whose fortunes are connected to major privately held American companies.
7. Miriam Adelson & Family: $33.5 Billion
Miriam Adelson and her family rank seventh with an estimated $33.5 billion fortune. Forbes lists casinos as the source of their wealth.
© Getty Images6. Melinda French Gates: $34.6 Billion
Melinda French Gates has an estimated net worth of $34.6 billion, according to Forbes, which lists Microsoft as the source of her fortune. That places the 62-year-old sixth among the richest women in the United States.
© GC Images5. Marilyn Simons & Family: $36.6 Billion
Marilyn Simons and her family are worth an estimated $36.6 billion. Their wealth comes from hedge funds, placing Simons fifth on the 2026 list of America’s wealthiest women.
© Getty Images4. Abigail Johnson: $41.6 Billion
Fidelity chief Abigail Johnson is worth an estimated $41.6 billion, making her the fourth-richest woman in America. Her fortune is tied to Fidelity, the financial-services giant led by the Johnson family.
© Boston Globe via Getty Images3. Jacqueline Mars: $50.3 Billion
Jacqueline Mars remains one of America’s wealthiest heirs with a fortune estimated at $50.3 billion. Forbes lists candy and pet food as the sources of her wealth, reflecting the enormous family business built around Mars brands.
© Getty Images for Orange County MMars is one of only three women on the 2026 ranking whose fortunes exceed $50 billion.
2. Julia Koch & Family: $84.6 Billion
Julia Koch and her family rank second with an estimated $84.6 billion fortune connected to Koch, Inc. Her wealth increased by roughly $3.4 billion over the past year, according to Forbes.
Despite that gain, the distance between Koch and America’s richest woman has grown considerably.
1. Alice Walton: $118 Billion
Alice Walton remains firmly at No. 1.
© Getty ImagesThe 76-year-old daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton is worth an estimated $118 billion on the 2026 Forbes 400, up approximately $12 billion from a year earlier. Forbes attributes much of that increase to a more than 10% rise in Walmart shares.
Walton is now about $33 billion wealthier than Julia Koch and ranks as the 13th-richest person in America overall. It is her fourth consecutive year as America’s richest woman and the 11th time in 12 years that she has held the title.
Rather than taking a major operating role at Walmart, Walton has focused heavily on art and philanthropy. She helped create the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine welcomed its first class of MD students in 2025.
A New AI Billionaire Joins America’s Richest Women
One of the biggest changes to the 2026 ranking comes from artificial intelligence.
Anthropic president Daniela Amodei, 39, entered the Forbes 400 with an estimated $15.5 billion fortune after the AI company raised $65 billion at a reported $965 billion valuation in May. She is now the youngest woman on the Forbes 400 and the second-richest self-made woman in America, according to Forbes.
© dpa/picture alliance via Getty IThree other women are newcomers this year: Catherine Commisso, worth an estimated $5.2 billion; Wendy Abrams, worth $4.7 billion; and Jennifer Gilbert, also worth $4.7 billion.
How Many Self-Made Women Are on the Forbes 400?
Just 13 of the 62 women on the 2026 Forbes 400 are classified as self-made by Forbes. The richest is Diane Hendricks, cofounder of building materials distributor ABC Supply, with an estimated $23.6 billion fortune.
Other notable self-made women include Panda Express cofounder Peggy Cherng at $8.3 billion, Little Caesars cofounder Marian Ilitch at $7.6 billion and Arista Networks president and CEO Jayshree Ullal at $7.2 billion.
© Getty Images for Panda InnThe fortunes of the 62 women come from 17 industries. Food and beverage leads with 14 women, followed by technology with 10 and finance and investments with six.
America’s Richest Women Are Closing In on $1 Trillion
The headline number may be the most remarkable: $954 billion.
That puts the combined fortunes of the women on the Forbes 400 just $46 billion short of $1 trillion. Their wealth climbed by roughly 9% from last year even as the threshold for simply making the Forbes 400 rose to an all-time high.
For now, the number of women in America’s richest 400 remains unchanged at 62. Their combined wealth, however, is moving sharply higher.
