The youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton co-manages Walton Enterprises, which together with another family holding company controls about 44% of Walmart, the world's second-largest retailer. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based chain had more than 10,900 stores and reported revenue of $713.2 billion in the year to Jan. 31, 2026.
The majority of Walton's fortune is derived from Walmart, the world's second-largest retailer based on revenue, according to a February 2026 report. Most of the shares are owned through the Walton Family Holdings Trust and the family's closely-held holding company, Walton Enterprises, according to a March 2026 filing.
The analysis credits him with about 11% of the business, based on an assumption that co-founder Sam Walton split the shares he owned equally among his four children -- Rob, Alice, Jim and John.
He also owns a 44% stake in Arvest Bank, the second-largest bank in Arkansas. Arvest has a book value of about $2.3 billion, according to a December 2025 filing with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The valuation is based on the average price-to-book-value multiple of two publicly traded peers: Fifth Third Bancorp and UMB Financial.
The value of his cash investments is based on proceeds from stock sales and dividends as well as taxes, market performance and family investments.
A spokesperson for the Walton family declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Jim Walton is the youngest son of Sam Walton, who opened his first Walmart retail store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. At the time of his death 30 years later, Sam had turned Wal-Mart into the world's largest retailer, with almost 2,000 stores and $44 billion in annual sales.
Jim Walton graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1971. He soon joined Walmart to handle real estate transactions. In the mid-1970s, he was put in charge of Walton Enterprises, the Walton family office, whose holdings included the Bank of Bentonville (since renamed Arvest Bank). Walton became Arvest's chief executive officer and turned it into the largest bank in the state. He stepped down as CEO in 2024. Today the bank has $26 billion in assets.
The billionaire joined the Walmart board following the death of his brother John in 2005 and served until 2016. He owns Community Publishers, which operates newspapers in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.