These are the heirs to the greatest fortunes in the world

The richest people in the world appear regularly in the media, but what do we know about the ones who will inherit all of this wealth someday? In the following slides, you'll see the children likely to succeed the world's elite in business - or those who have already inherited their fortunes.

The son of billionaire François Pinault is the husband of Salma Hayek. He is currently the CEO of the family group Kering.

Francois-Henri Pinault is also set to inherit his father's fortune together with Salma Hayek. The family heritage amounts to more than 30 billion euros.

In the UK, the richest noble family is not the royal family but the House of Westminster. At 31, Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, inherited a gigantic real estate empire with an estimated patrimony of 12 billion dollars.

In Spain, Sandra Ortega Mera is the second wealthiest in the country, behind her father Amancio Ortega, with personal assets valued at around 6 billion euros. The family owns the Inditex conglomerate, which notably includes the brands Zara, Massimo Dutti, and Stradivarius.

In Italy, the politician and businessman Silvio Berlusconi, now 86 years old, is at the head of a fortune of more than 5 billion euros. A jackpot that will have to be decided one day between his five children from two different marriages: Maria Elvira, Pier Silvio, Barbara, Eleonora, and Luigi.

Born in 1966, the eldest, Maria Elvira - or  'Marina' - (on the right in the photo) already chairs the family holding Fininvest. She is credited with the same political ambitions as her father and is well on her way to succeeding him in business.

How do you pass on the family business to your children without compromising its unity? This is the question facing Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France. As a father of five children from two different marriages, the businessman has not yet announced his succession, but he has already prepared his children for the next step.

Born in 1977, his son Antoine Arnault runs the Berluti group, which is part of the LVMH conglomerate owned by Bernard. Although Antoine follows in his father's footsteps, he also develops his own style. As he told 'Paris Match:' "I am not my father's clone. He's Chopin, I'm more a piano man."

His older sister Delphine has been the deputy general manager of Louis Vuitton since 2013, after holding several positions at LVMH. The youngest brother, Alexandre, 30, works at Tiffany &Co, acquired by LVMH, after having co-managed the German luxury luggage brand Rimowa.

The brothers Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, heirs of the Chanel group, are the second richest heirs of France with no less than 80 billion euros. The future of the family dynasty is already being mapped out, since Alain's son Nathaniel and his cousin Arthur Heilbronn are gradually gaining power in the family business.

Liliane Bettencourt's grandson Jean-Victor Meyers, born in 1986, is already a seasoned businessman. He replaced his grandmother as the director of L'Oréal in 2012 and co-founded Exemplaire, a company specializing in the manufacture of leather goods and travel items.

Jean-Victor is the son of Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, the daughter of Liliane and André Bettencourt who inherited the family fortune when her mother died in 2017. With an estate of 62.4 billion euros in 2022, she is currently the fourth richest person in France.

Rodolphe Saadé succeeded his father Jacques as the head of the shipowner CMA-CGM. In 2022, his fortune jumped 30 billion euros in just one year to arrive at 36 billion euros. He does not intend to stop there, as he approached Air France to set up a partnership with his shipping company.

Vincent Bolloré officially retired in February 2022, although rumors of a false start have been rife. His four children Sébastien, Yannick, Cyrille (on the left in the photo), and Marie have already been working for several years to take over his business.

The roles have been divided between the Bolloré heirs: Cyrille has taken over the family holding company, Yannick heads the communication agency Havas, the eldest Sébastien the Compagnie de l'Odet (which controls the Vivendi group), and the youngest, Marie, manages other group activities.

After the death of Serge Dassault in 2018 and his son Olivier in 2021, the Dassault aviation group is now in the hands of three heirs: Laurent, Marie-Hélène, and Thierry. Their cumulative fortune amounts to 31.4 billion euros in 2022.

An emblematic player in armaments and aviation, Dassault is diversifying its activity by investing in many sectors: real estate with Immobilière Dassault, media with the Le Figaro group, and health with the Biomérieux laboratory.

In Germany, the two children of Karl Albrecht, the founder of the retail giant Aldi, inherited their father's fortune when he died in 2014. Beate Heister and Karl Albrecht junior have a fortune of around 40 billion US dollars between them.

In the United States, Bill Gates intends to leave 'only' 10 billion dollars each to his children. A sum that is  certainly considerable, but which does not represent the majority of their heritage. The Microsoft founder has long stated that he prefers to bequeath his fortune to charities or NGOs.

Following this example, several other American billionaires have already announced that they will not bequeath their money to their children.The former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, the billionaire Warren Buffett, and the actor Jackie Chan are among them.