Richest self-made women in America

- Wealth: $1.7 billion
- Primary company: KKW Beauty
- Primary industry: Personal care

Kim Kardashian became a household name thanks to her family's hit TV series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." But the reality TV star made her real fortune by branching out into personal care products. The superstar's SKKN by Kim beauty line—formerly known as KKW—was prompted by Kardashian's self-described desire to give people at-home access to dermatologist-quality skincare without a doctor's office visit.

- Wealth: $1.9 billion
- Primary company: Oracle
- Primary industry: Enterprise software

Safra Catz has been the CEO of Oracle since 2014 and has sat on the board of directors since 2001. In addition to her duties at the software and services company, Catz's net worth also comes from her position on the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company.

- Wealth: $2.0 billion
- Primary company: Bio-Rad Laboratories
- Primary industry: Pharmaceuticals

Alice Schwartz met her husband, David, while studying for her biochemistry degree at the University of California, Berkeley. They started Bio-Rad Laboratories in a Berkeley Quonset hut in 1952 with $720 and eventually expanded into biological discovery and health care research. She worked as a researcher and member of the board of directors. She stepped down from her board duties in 2022 at age 96. Her son, Norman Schwartz, is now CEO of the company.

-Wealth: $2.0 billion
-Primary company: Macom Technology Solutions
-Primary industry: Semiconductors

Along with her late husband, John Ocampo, Susan Ocampo co-founded technology companies Sirenza Microdevices in 1984 and GaAs Labs in 2008. The Ocampos sold Sirenza to RF Microdevices for $900 million in 2007. As of 2025, Susan serves as the director of semiconductor provider Macom Technology Solutions and as the vice president of GaAs Labs. She is also the largest individual shareholder at Macom with about 21% of the company's shares.

- Wealth: $2.1 billion
- Primary company: Wynn Resort
- Primary industry: Casino

Elaine Wynn co-founded her family's eponymous resort and casino business, Wynn Resorts. The Las Vegas doyenne is an avid art collector and has partnered with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to found Sin City's first art museum, which was approved in December 2023. She told the Wall Street Journal that the price of her 2013 purchase of a Francis Bacon triptych—at $142.4 million, then the most expensive art piece sold at auction—spurred speculation that offended her: claims that a man must have purchased the paintings.

- Wealth: $2.1 billion
- Primary company: Facebook
- Primary industry: Media

Sheryl Sandberg may be best known for writing the controversial bestseller "Lean In," which advised women to take charge of their own careers and destinies. Still, Sandberg's fortune didn't come from book sales but from her early involvement and decades of experience as COO of the social networking giant Facebook. She stepped down from the position in June 2022 and departed the company's board in May 2024.

-Wealth: $2.6 billion
-Primary company: Jackson Family Wines
-Primary industry: Wine

Once a land-use lawyer, Barbara Banke and her family have long shared ownership of Jackson Family Wines, which she and her late husband, Jess Jackson, started in the mid-1980s. The internationally famed wine label is best known for its signature Sonoma-grown Kendall-Jackson line, but has holdings around the globe, including La Crema and Freemark Abbey. Banke also helps run the family-owned Stonestreet Farms, a horse-racing stable based out of Kentucky and Florida.

- Wealth: $3.0 billion
- Primary company: Oprah Winfrey Network
- Primary industry: Entertainment

Oprah Winfrey's eponymous "The Oprah Winfrey Show" made her a household name from 1986 until its final episode in 2011. She went on to found her TV network, Oprah Winfrey Network, which is the source of most of her wealth today.

- Wealth: $3.1 billion
- Primary company: Panda Express
- Primary industry: Restaurants

Peggy Cherng is the co-founder of the Chinese fast-food company Panda Express. The company boasts more than 2,300 locations worldwide and $3 billion in sales. In recent years, Cherng has also made philanthropic efforts, like donating millions to City of Hope cancer center and the University of Missouri's scholarship program.

- Wealth: $3.4 billion
- Primary company: eBay
- Primary industry: E-commerce

Meg Whitman spent a decade at the helm of e-commerce pioneer eBay. During Whitman's tenure as CEO between 1998 and 2008, she grew the company from $5.7 billion to $8 billion in sales. She was subsequently the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, where she oversaw the company's split into two entities. Between 2022 and 2024, Whitman served as the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya.

- Wealth: $3.6 billion
- Primary company: Arista Networks
- Primary industry: Networking solutions

Jayshree Ullal has served as president and CEO of the computer networking firm Arista since 2008. She owns about 3% of Arista's stock, which contributes significantly to her net worth. Ullal also sits on the board of Snowflake, a public cloud computing company.

-Wealth: $3.7 billion
-Primary company: Sierra Nevada Corporation
-Primary industry: Aerospace

Eren Ozmen immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey in 1981 and became the chairwoman and president of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, a private aerospace and defense business. The company is known for its innovations in the world of space travel and aviation; in 2024, it won a roughly $13 billion U.S. Air Force contract to develop a new "Doomsday" airplane. In addition to running the Sierra Nevada Corporation and its spin-off, Sierra Space, Ozmen and her husband, Fatih Ozmen, also operate the charitable Ozmen Foundation and the venture capital fund Ozmen Ventures.

- Wealth: $4.3 billion
- Primary company: JB Hunt Transport Services
- Primary industry: Logistics

Johnelle Hunt may be one of the richest women in the world today, but it wasn't always this way for her. Hunt and her husband had to sell their home and take out loans to start their rice trucking business decades ago. Today, that company has evolved into a multibillion-dollar empire, of which Hunt is the largest individual shareholder with an 18% stake.

- Wealth: $4.4 billion
- Primary company: Larry H. Miller
- Primary industry: Automobiles

Gail Miller is the co-founder of Larry H. Miller, a group of companies that has held, at various points, sports teams, vast automotive dealings, and more. Though she served as the company's chair for five years after her husband died in 2009, she's more recently been focused on philanthropic efforts. As of 2025, she is chair of the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation, and she oversees the Larry H. Miller Education Foundation.

-Wealth: $4.6 billion
-Primary company: Little Caesar Enterprises Inc.
-Primary industry: Restaurants

In 1959, Marian and her late husband Mike Ilitch started what would become one of the world's biggest pizza restaurant chains: Little Caesars. Marian still owns Little Caesars, which earns more than $5 billion in sales every year. She has also picked up some sports and entertainment holdings via Ilitch Companies, including the Detroit Red Wings pro hockey team and the Detroit Tigers MLB team. Like Mike, Marian is well known for her philanthropic efforts—she and her companies have given more than $250 million dollars in grants and donations since 2000, much of it aimed at revitalizing her hometown, Detroit.

- Wealth: $5.6 billion
- Primary company: The Wonderful Company
- Primary industry: Food processing

Lynda Resnick is vice-chair and co-owner of The Wonderful Company, best known for distributing various health food products, including pistachios and seedless lemons. Famous for her marketing prowess, Resnick was nicknamed "POM Queen" after making the company's POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice a wild success.

-Wealth: $6.7 billion
-Primary company: Uline
-Primary industry: Packaging materials

Elizabeth Uihlein co-founded shipping company Uline with her husband—Schlitz Brewing Company heir Richard "Dick" Uihlein—out of their house in 1980. Uline has since become one of the biggest distributors of packaging materials in North America, selling more than 42,000 products across the U.S. In recent years, the Uihleins have donated tens of millions of dollars to conservative political causes, including President Donald Trump's 2024 re-election campaign.

-Wealth: $6.8 billion
-Primary company: SHI International
-Primary industry: IT provider

Born in Thailand and raised in Korea and the U.S., Thai Lee is the president and CEO of IT provider SHI International. Lee and her then-husband Leo Koguan purchased the company's predecessor together in 1989, and Lee currently owns 60% of the corporation, which counts Boeing and AT&T among its customers. According to Forbes, SHI International is the largest woman-owned business in the United States.

- Wealth: $7.6 billion
- Primary company: Epic Systems
- Primary industry: Health care

Judy Faulkner founded health care software company Epic Systems in 1979 in a Wisconsin basement. It is now the largest company of its kind in the U.S. As the CEO, Faulkner owns 47% of the multibillion-dollar company.

- Wealth: $11.6 billion
- Primary company: Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores
- Primary industry: Multibrand retail

Far from the modern world of technology and Silicon Valley, Judy Love's empire began with a humble gas station. She and her husband took out a $5,000 loan to open their first gas station in the 1960s. Today, that business has expanded to almost every state in America and does about $25 billion in annual sales.

- Wealth: $20.9 billion
- Primary company: ABC Supply
- Primary industry: Construction materials

The richest self-made woman in America, Diane Hendricks, made her fortune in construction at ABC Supply. But today, the billionaire has turned her attention to post-industrial towns she believes she can revitalize. One of them is Beloit, a Wisconsin town that has fallen on hard times in recent years, which Hendricks hopes can be transformed into a magnet for startups and founders.

Data reporting by Paxtyn Merten. Story editing by Jeff Inglis. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Clarese Moller.