Depends on what you mean by “recently”. Think Rockefeller, Getty, Rothschild, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan… all the classic mega-wealthy families were built around companies with one man at the top, who made or approved all major decisions and either owned the company outright or had a dominant majority share. That didn’t really change until around the 1930s. Modern corporate structure with distributed participation made it possible to get extremely wealthy without starting or inheriting your own company.
Depends on what you mean by “recently”. Think Rockefeller, Getty, Rothschild, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan… all the classic mega-wealthy families were built around companies with one man at the top, who made or approved all major decisions and either owned the company outright or had a dominant majority share. That didn’t really change until around the 1930s. Modern corporate structure with distributed participation made it possible to get extremely wealthy without starting or inheriting your own company.