Today we delve inside the billionaire families that rule the world in terms of wealth and explore their billionaire lifestyles. This is 15 Billionaire Families That Rule The World.
15 — Saudi Royal Family
With powerful names including King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, Al-Waleed bin Talal was reported to be the 34th-richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$22.6 billion in 2015 while Mohammed bin Salman is thought to be worth close to $5 billion and the King having wealth exceedeing $18 billion dollars.
The royal family owns many businesses valued at $1.4 trillion around the world including the Armco state oil & gas company.
The family owns a $450.3 million dollar Leonardo da Vinci painting, known as ‘Jesus Christ’ and there are over 15,000 princes and family members living in luxury palaces.
Over $350 million was paid for the Chateau Louis XIV, dubbed the worlds most expensive home and $650 million was dropped by Crown Prince Salman on Serene, a 439 foot giga-yacht.
When it comes to property, no one does it better than the Saudis with the Erga Palace, Al-Yamama Palace and Le Château de Lumière, a 12 million dollar property in Great Falls, USA.
Cars are also big in the family with one Saudi prince owning each model of every car on earth and collecting new ones as they come out.
Its thought House Al Saud is worth a collective $2 Trillion dollars.
14 — The Hearst Family
With everything from involvment in politics to publishing businesses and even gold mines, the Hearst Family powerhouse was originally run by William Randolph Hearst until his death in 1951.
Over 67 family members shared the $24.5 billion dollar fortune which included newspapers, nearly 300 magazines, TV and radio stations, and stakes in cable TV channels.
Family gold mines allowed randolph to build an empire un-matched in modern times with his take-over the San Francisco Examiner in the late 1800s.
Family members including actress and model, Lydia Hearst who owns the landmarked Rossetti Residence in Los Feliz that she purchased for $11 million dollars.
Another family member, Gillian Hearst-Shaw who is a contributing editor at Town & Country magazine, owns a 4,176-square-foot town home at 12 West 83rd Street that has five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms.
Another large property once owned by the family is Hearst Castle, a 42 bedroom, 61 bathroom property that features 127 acres of gardens and 19 sitting rooms.
The castle was built by William Randolph Hearst and never officially finished with indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield and, during Hearst’s lifetime, the world’s largest private zoo.
Thought to have cost between $7.2 and $8.2 million dollars to construct, three guest houses were also constructed and include Casa del Monte, Casa del Sol and Casa Grande.
Hearst was also a collector of art, antiquities, sculptures, paintings and textiles with him amassing a collection worth over $15 million and the castle?…. well it was sold for over $80 million dollars.
13 — The Lauder Family
Founded in 1946, the Estée Lauder company was the brainchild of Estée Lauder and her husband, Joseph with one main goal in mind, the belief that every woman can be beautiful.
75 years later the family has an estimated net worth of close to $22.4 billion dollars and is managed by Aerin Lauder, Jane Lauder and William Lauder.
Property is one main factor in this family with a palm beach mansion worth $25.4 million dollars and a large home in the Hampton’s
Now actively engaged in the company’s leadership in collaboration with executive leaders, the Hearst’s have continued expanding the company their parents built over the years.
The family is also heavily involved in both philanthropy and the arts with Leonard Lauder, currently worth over $30 billion dollars once having an art collection valued at over $1 billion.
One time ambassador to Austria Ronald Lauder once spent $135 million on a portrait of wealthy Viennese beauty, Adele Bloch-Bauer.
Overall the family has six billionaires and is currently one of the richest families in America.
12 — The Johnson Family
Founded in 1946, The Edward Johnson family owns the second-largest mutual fund company, Fidelity and has been passed down through three generations.
The $38.7 billion dollar fortune is shared between four family members including Edward Johnson II, worth $6.9 billion and Abigail Johnson worth $10.1 billion, making her the sixth-richest woman in America and her children Edward C. Johnson IV, and Elizabeth L. Johnson are both worth over $2.5 billion each.
The company has a number of holdings and intrests including oil and gas, a large farm and Fidelity Investments which had operating income of $3.3 billion in 2011.
11 — The Goldman Family
Coming from massive real estate investment, this $13.2 billion family own over 400 properties in New York City alone that also includes a 17% stake in World Trade Center developments.
Originally founded by Sol Goldman, he started Solil Management in the 1950’s when property prices were considered a bargain.
Jane Goldman is the face of the company today and together with her siblings they own 25% of the family’s real estate firm, BLDG Management with holdings over $12 billion dollars.
Properties in the portfolio include prestigious high-end apartments on the Upper East Side, the Olympic Tower, The Cartier Mansion and The Peninsula Hotel.
Three first cousins, led by Sol’s nephew Lloyd also own their own miniture property empire worth at least $1.5 billion dollars.
10 — Bezos Family
A name that resonates through almost every Amazon family shopper, Jeff Bezos has built an empire that, as of today, makes him the worlds richest man with a staggering net worth of close to $200.5 billion dollars.
Bezos built his Amazon empire from nothing and today the company has over 1.3 million employees and over 175 fulfilment centres covering 150 million square feet of space.
Bezos has started his own space company, named Blue Origin and has met with presidents and prime ministers of various countries with plans to travel into space himself in 2021.
He is reported to have purchased a luxury sailing yacht named Project Y721 which will become the world’s largest sailing superyacht upon delivery in 2022.
Property is another big investment for the family with a 29,000-square-foot estate in Medina, Washington worth $23 million, a bunch of NCY apartments worth $80million and the insane L.A. mansion worth $ 165million dollars.
EX-Wife MacKenzie Scott is worth over $57.0 billion dollars and lives in seattle while his parents, Jackie and Mike Bezos are worth somewhere in the realm of $30 billion dollars.
Bezos’s company currently has the world-wide monopoly on buying, selling and delivering on-line products world-wide making the family name one of the most recognizable in the world.
9 — Gates Family
Another family recognisable name, the gates family, headed by William “Bill” Gates III, is most well known for their company, Microsoft.
Founded on the 4th April 1975 in Albuquerque, Microsoft became the worlds largest distributor of software and today has a net worth of close to $1 trillion dollars.
The Gates Family owns one of the largest houses in the world featuring six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a home theatre that can accommodate 20 guests and a reception hall for 200 guests.
The home is a technological marvel with paintings changing when someone walks in the room and an underground garage for 25 cars.
Gates has purchased some pretty crazy things including the Codex Leicester, a 16-century Leonardo da Vinci manuscript worth over $30 million dollars and a painting worth $36 million dollars.
The gates family are one of the most philanthropic in the world with The Gates Foundation donating over $36 billion dollars to charities and organizations around the world, helping to combat world health issues and climate change.
With an IQ of 160, Bill Gates is technically a genius and we expect much more from him in the near future.
8 — The Du Ponts
With a net worth of close to $14.3 billion dollars, the Du Pont family has to be one of the oldest fortunes in America and was founded in 1802 as a gunpowder manufacturer.
Moving forward to the present day and the chemical business has turned this family into a pwerhouse with everything from dynamite to plastics and even the invention of nylon, kevlar and Teflon adding to their fortunes.
Over 3,500 members of the family share the fortune, however no-one in the family actually runs the company, with them leaving that up to a board of directors.
The Du Ponts own a number of homes in what has been dubbed Chateau Country, the richest area of Delaware and properties include Nemours Estate, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library and the Hagley Museum and Library.
7 — The Anheuser-Busch Family
Owning one of the largest brewery companies in the world, The Anheuser-Busch family are the main reason why you can pick up a Budweiser and drink it.
The family, with a net worth close to $13 billion dollars, owns over 13 breweries in the United States and have had their hands in brewing since 1876.
Also incorporated into the families billionaire holding was their once collection of theme parks that included seaworld and Busch Gardens in Florida.
Other parks they still own include Adventure Island and Sesame Place with the whole business eventually sold for close to $52 billion dollars.
Over 30 people within the family split the fortune including Actress Haley Busch who became a billionaire overnight and has a net worth of $1.5 billion.
Other family holdings include a giant Florida beach estate worth $6.9 million and a large family mansion in Huntleigh, Missouri.
6 — The Mars Clan
Another one of the richest families in the United States, they own the confectionery company Mars, Inc with a combined net worth of $90 billion dollars.
With an annual turnover of around $27.5 billion, the confectionary company is one of the largest in the world with leading brands including the Milky Way bar, M&Ms and Snickers.
Now a leading manufacturer of petfood, Pedigree and Whiskas, the family is known for its degree of privacy and is led by the third generation of the family including Forrest, John, and Jacqueline Mars.
Jacqueline is currently the only one living a flamboyant lifestyle and reportedly sold a New Jersey estate for $2 million dollars and owns Stonehall Farm in Virginia along with her mothers Watergate Penthouse.
5 — The Morgan Family
Another family with heavy banking dynasty links, the Morgan’s became prominent in the U.S. and throughout the world in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Known as the House of Morgan this family is thought to have given rise to what is modern day finance and began with J.P. Morgan.
Between 1837 and 1913, J.P. Morgans wealth is estimated to have ballooned to over $38 billion dollars making him the 24th richest American in history.
A founding member of the powerful Metropolitan Club Morgan used his influence to become frieneds with powerful people of the day including Cornelius Vanderbilt and Darius Ogden Mills.
The family is regadred as having catapulted the American economy into an industrial powerhouse once owned Tredegar House in Wales.
Thanks to seven trusts established in 1934, several living decedents are worth over £1 billion dollars each and the family contains over 132 living descendants.
4 — The Koch Family
Often referred to as the Koch brothers, the family at large is estimated to be worth close to $100 billion, making them the second richest family in America.
Extremely influential in politics, the family has managed to bring its fringe political ideas to the center of American politics thatks to their incredible wealth.
Starting in 1925 thanks to the late Fred Koch when he joined the Keith-Winkler Engineering Company, his sons, Fred Jr., Charles, Bill, and the late David Koch took over their father’s business and turned it into one of the wealthiest families on the planet.
The family is invested in many businesses today including asphalt, fertilizers, pulp, and paper manufacturing, ranching, natural gas, plastics, petroleum, energy, fibers and textiles, chemical development and production, commodities trading, and finance.
David Koch passed away in 2019 and left 41 billion dollars to his widow Julia Koch while his three children inherited his 42% stake in Koch Industries.
With regards to property, the family sits on a real estate empire worth millions including a 90-acre estate known as Elk Mountain Lodge near Aspen worth $80 million and at least $143 million of real estate in NYC, the Hamptons and Florida.
Today the Koch family business brings in roughly $110 billion dollars per year.
3 — The Rockefeller Family
One of the most famous banking families in the world, John D Rockerfeller built this massive family from the ground up and was once the wealthiest American of all time.
He founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870 and the family wealth soared as kerosene and gasoline grew in importance.
He made large investments in the railroad industry which helped move his products around the country and lived on a massive estate in Westchester County, New York.
In today’s world the family business includes over 30 companies and 37 influential associates including Richard Parsons and Henry Kissinger.
Business dealings include powerful companies such as The Chrysler Corporation, ExxonMobil, General Electric and Chevron.
The family owns a large real estate portfolio that includes many historic sites such as Kykuit, once known as the 3,400-acre John D. Rockefeller Estate.
Also once in the family portfolio was The Rockefeller Center tower in new York City, the original World Trade Center complex and One Chase Manhattan Plaza.
The family which is vast and once had an estimated net worth of $340 Billion dollars.
2 — The Walton Family
Another family currently holding the title of richest in the United States, the waltons are most famous for their collective ownership of Walmart.
Seven family members share a collective wealth of over $215 billion dollars including Alice Walton, Jim Walton, Lukas Walton and Samuel Robson Walton being some of the welthiest.
The family gave a $250 million grant towards building charter school facilities in 2016 and has offered over $1 billion to expand education accross the United States over 5 years.
Having this much money makes you influential in all circles of wealth and the Walton Family has many friends including former presidents, political elite and wealthy business owners.
With annual sales of $500 billion, the family has been able to invest in house near Paradise Valley, Arizona, near the base of Camelback Mountain and also over $15 million worth of classic cars.
Alice currently owns a $500 million dollar art collection that is so big it had to be housed in its own custom museum that was four times larger than the famous Whitney Museum in New York.
1 — The Rothschild Dynasty
Possibly one of the most famous banking dynasties in the world, the Rothschild family empire still owns a considerable amount of property in todays world.
Over the last centuary, the Rothschilds amassed a fortune close to $400 billion dollars and many properties such as a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens in London valued at $85 million dollars and a large castle named Château de Pregny in Switzerland.
Other properties owned or managed by the family include Waddesdon Manor, Nash house on Hanover Terrace in Regent’s Park, London and Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild which is located on the French Riviera.
Prominent Rothschilds alive today include Nathaniel Philip Rothschild who manages a hedge fund worth $20 billion, Enviromentalist David Mayer de Rothschild worth close too $10 billion dollars and Hannah Mary Rothschild worth $4 billion.
Originally keeping the wealth directly in the family Nathan Mayer D Rothschild often arranged family marriages and was once so powerful, he was even reported to have single handedly crashed the London Stock Exchange.
Today the family has three main sources of revenue, Global Investment Banking Advisory Services, Wealth and Asset Management, and Merchant Banking.
Its been reported that the Rothschild family are part behind the Greyscale trust after they invested $4.75 million dollars in 2021.
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