Bill Gates may no longer be the richest man in the world, but he can claim a new title: the king of America’s farmland.
The billionaire Microsoft co-founder became the largest landowner in the United States, quietly buying up huge plots of land across the county, says a new report.
Gates’ portfolio comprises about 242,000 acres of agricultural land and nearly 27,000 acres of other land in 19 states, according to The Land Report, a magazine for land investors that tracks the country’s largest landowners.
The largest parcels of Gates’ properties are in Louisiana and Arkansas, where he owns 69,071 acres and 47,927 acres, respectively, according to the outlet’s survey.
He also owns about 16,000 acres in his home state of Washington, including a 14,500-acre area in the Horse Heaven Hills region that was purchased for nearly $ 171 million.
The land is directly and indirectly owned by Cascade Investment, a Seattle-based company that Gates – the third richest man in the world with a net worth of $ 132 billion, according to Bloomberg – has set up to manage his enormous fortune, from according to The Land Report.
A tip about Gates’ huge farmland came in a 2014 Wall Street Journal profile by Michael Larson, the finance manager who serves as Cascade’s chief investment officer. The article noted that the company owns “at least 100,000 acres of agricultural land in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states – or an area seven times that of Manhattan”.
It is not known why Gates invested in so much agricultural land or how his land is currently being used. Cascade did not immediately respond to a phone message on Friday, and the company declined to comment on The Land Report “in addition to saying that Cascade is very supportive of sustainable agriculture,” the vehicle said.
Agriculture is also a major focus area for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the large charity run by Gates and his wife. The foundation aims to “support inclusive country-led agricultural transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,” according to its website.
Although Gates is the largest landowner in America, he is far from being the largest landowner in the country at large. This crown belongs to Liberty Media President John Malone, who owns 2.2 million acres, according to The Land Report.
This article was first published on NYPost.com