The Austrian Porsche/Piëch family is one of the world’s ten richest families due to their ownership position in the Volkswagen Group. The umbrella corporation manufactures and oversees brands such as Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, CUPRA, Italdesign Giugiaro, Lamborghini, MAN AG, Porsche, Scania, SEAT, Škoda Auto and, of course, Volkswagen.
In 2017, the Volkswagen Group earned $265 billion in revenue. The family owns a 50 per cent stake in Porsche SE but maintains 100 per cent control of voting rights. In the Volkswagen Group, the family has a 32.2 subscribed capital stake but maintains. 50.73 per cent control of voting rights.
The family’s automotive roots can be traced back to patriarch, Ferdinand Porsche who started out as an automobile designer for automaker Austro-Daimler before founding the iconic car company Porsche in 1931. Porsche’s grandson, Ferdinand Piëch (son of Porsche’s daughter Louise and her husband Anton Piëch) headed up Audi after a 1972 Porsche policy stated that now family member could have a controlling interest in the company.
The Audi move led to Piëch’s eventual ascendance to the head of the Volkswagen Group, of which he is largely attributed to raising it to the status it has today. Today, the family no longer runs the day-to-day operations in the car companies. However, Porshe heirs Peter Daniell Porsche, Stefan Piëch and Josef Michael Ahorner joined the non-executive board of Porsche Automobil Holding SE in May 2018. The family’s net worth is estimated to be just shy of $55 billion.
