L’Oréal Heiress Becomes $24 Billion Richer in 2025, Surpassing Mukesh Ambani
L'Oréal Heiress Becomes $24 Billion Richer in 2025, Surpassing Mukesh Ambani
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers’ net worth soars to $98 billion as beauty giant’s stock rallies
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the 72-year-old French heiress to the L’Oréal fortune, has added about $24 billion to her wealth so far this year, making her richer than Asia’s wealthiest man, Mukesh Ambani.
Her net worth has surged 32% in just eight months, reaching nearly $98 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This makes her the second-richest woman in the world, behind Walmart heiress Alice Walton ($118 billion), and places her 18th globally, one spot ahead of Ambani (nearly $97 billion).
The sharp rise in her fortune stems from a 17% jump in L’Oréal’s share price in 2025, now trading close to $400. Bettencourt Meyers, granddaughter of L’Oréal founder Eugène Schueller, controls about 35% of the company, which owns global brands including Maybelline, Lancôme, and Redken.
She has outpaced some of the biggest names in tech and business, gaining more this year than Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Masayoshi Son, and Pop Mart CEO Wang Ning, each of whom added $17–21 billion.
Bettencourt Meyers, who inherited her stake in 2017 after her mother Liliane’s death, briefly became the first woman to cross the $100 billion mark in 2023, but market fluctuations brought her wealth down before this year’s rebound. She stepped down from L’Oréal’s board earlier in 2025 after 28 years, with her son Jean-Victor Meyers taking over as vice chair.
