L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers overtakes Mukesh Ambani with $98b fortune

Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the French beauty heiress and granddaughter of L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller, has seen her fortune surge by nearly $24 billion this year, making her wealthier than Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

The 72-year-old now has an estimated net worth of $98 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That marks a 32 per cent rise in the past eight months, fuelled by a strong performance of L’Oréal shares, which have climbed 17 per cent in 2025 to trade close to $400.

Bettencourt Meyers, who holds a 35 per cent stake in the cosmetics giant, directly benefits from the company’s steady growth.

Her gains this year outpaced several global tech leaders. She added more wealth than Alphabet co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Pop Mart’s Wang Ning and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son — all of whom saw increases of between $17 billion and $21 billion.

Bettencourt Meyers is now ranked 18th on Bloomberg’s global rich list, just ahead of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, whose fortune stands at about $97 billion.

She still trails Alice Walton, the Walmart heiress valued at $118 billion, who remains the world’s richest woman.