America’s Most Valuable Private Family Businesses 2026

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Today on Forbes, America's most valuable private family businesses 2026.

[00:00:08]Earlier in May, Forbes published its inaugural list of America's largest family businesses by revenue. But sales are hardly the only way to measure the magnitude of a business. That's why for the first time ever, we value the nation's top private family firms. Most aren't flashy, preferring to remain low-key. Despite their reticence, three of them are worth more than $100 billion by our estimates, making them more valuable than all but a handful of the hottest tech unicorns like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

[00:00:43]The 25 private family businesses on Forbes's latest ranking are behind the cars we rent, Enterprise Mobility, grocery stores we shop, Publix, and tools we use for home improvement projects, Harbor Freight. They make some of the most popular brands and product categories like candy, Milky Way bars, concrete, quickrete, and paper cups, Dixie. and they're based all over the country in 16 different states stretching from Delaware to Illinois to Idaho.

[00:01:16]Occupying the number one spot is $185 billion in estimated valuation, KO Inc., the Witchah, Kansas based conglomerate, formerly known as Ko Industries, which is 84% owned by the families of 90-year-old chairman and co-CEO Charles Ko and Julia Ko, the widow of Charles's brother David, who passed away in 2019.

[00:01:40]The oldest of the top 25 is food and agriculture giant Cargill, which was founded by William Wallace Cargill in 1865.

[00:01:49]Defining what counts as a family business can be tricky. So Forbes consulted with five experts in the field to come up with our methodology, which takes into account factors like family ownership and executive and board roles.

[00:02:03]Also earlier this month, we published our first ever ranking of America's top 25 most valuable public family businesses. No companies run only by first generation founders were included on either list. Here are the top five most valuable private family businesses according to our ranking. At number one is the affforementioned Coke Inc. Fred Ko started what would become Coke, Inc.

[00:02:27]in 1940 after developing a new way to refine oil. His son Charles took over when Fred died in 1967 and expanded into industries including chemicals, pulp and paper, pipelines, and software.

[00:02:43]Charles and his brother David's widow, Julia Ko, each have a 42% voting stake in the $125 billion in revenue firm, which makes Bronny paper towels, angel soft toilet paper, and Dixie cups.

[00:02:58]At number two is Mars. With an estimated valuation of $121 billion, Mars dates back to 1911 when its founder, Frank Mars, started making and selling candy out of his kitchen. Over the past 115 years, the creator of M&M's and Milky Way bars has diversified into pet care with whiskers and food with Ben's original. Mars acquired competitor Kelanova split off from Kellogg late last year in a deal valued at $36 billion, adding snack foods like Cheeit, Pop-Tarts, and RX Bar. The Mars family owns 100% of the company.

[00:03:39]At number three is Fidelity Investments.

[00:03:41]With an estimated valuation of $17 billion, the Boston, Massachusetts-based company is 49% owned by the Johnson family, and employees own the other 51%.

[00:03:54]Abigail Johnson is the third generation of her family to run Fidelity, which is one of the largest financial services firms in the world with 17.9 trillion in assets under administration.

[00:04:06]An industry leader, Fidelity was the first company to let customers buy mutual funds over the phone in 1974 and it was one of the first traditional financial institutions to launch a cryptocurrency platform in 2018.

[00:04:19]It was founded in 1946 by Edward C.

[00:04:22]Johnson II who died in 1984.

[00:04:26]At number four is Publix with an estimated valuation of $63.1 billion.

[00:04:33]The Lakeland, Florida based company is 20% owned by the Jenkins family according to Forb's estimates, while current and former employees own the rest. George Jenkins, who died in 1996, opened the first public supermarket in Winter Haven, Florida in 1940. The company, which Jenkins's grandson, Ed Krenshaw, chaired until 2019, now operates more than 1,400 locations across eight southern states.

[00:05:01]At number five is Cargill. With an estimated valuation of 58.7 billion, America's largest private company by revenue traces its roots to a grain warehouse acquired by WW Cargill in 1865.

[00:05:16]Since then, the Minnesota based business has grown beyond agriculture and diversified into commodities trading, financial risk management, and transportation.

[00:05:25]Forbes estimates that over 100 family members together own 88% of the $154 billion in revenue company.

[00:05:35]For full coverage and to see the whole list, check out Andrea Murphy and Matt Duro's piece on Forbes.com.

[00:05:43]This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

[00:05:46]Thanks for tuning in.