One answer might surprise you: While trying to track down who recently purchased 14,500 acres of choice farmland in Washington state's Columbia River Basin, researchers at The Land Report discovered the new owner was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. So why did the Land Report, Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance. CNN founder Ted Turner owns 2 million acres of land largely in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Georgia. One of the Gates favorite vacation homes is in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. Published: 18:36 ET, Dec 8 2022 Updated: 10:03 ET, Dec 9 2022 A MAP has revealed which billionaire owns the largest amount of land in the US - you'll be shocked to know that it isn't Bill Gates. 07:04 GMT 16 Jan 2021. Farmland CNBC 2.94M subscribers Subscribe 47K 4.5M views 1 year ago #CNBC Bill Gates made. The largest. BlackRock is sometimes confused w/ Blackstone, which owned Invitation Homes. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation! The billionaire couple, in less than a decade, have accumulated more than 269,000 acres of farmland across 18 states, more than the entire acreage of New York City. Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft, has been revealed as the biggest private owner of farmland in the US, after buying up 242,000 acres in 18 states. Members of the Stanley family now work for Generations. The tech mogul, who is the. The price makes this one of the most expensive home sales in this part of California ever. This means that you can find good deals that may be just the thing you are looking for. The gun and the whip may not accompany land acquisitions this time around. The Microsoft co-founder faced several claims that he owned a majority of Americas farmland earlier this year. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_9',109,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-large-mobile-banner-2-0'); Raw land can be a great way to generate passive income or even spur large profits in the long term (or even short term if you know what you are doing). Bill Gates has never been a farmer. It also allows you to keep a portion of the land for personal use so you do not have to give up your weekend home or relaxation property. The six-bed Del Mar home, which boasts a ten-person jacuzzi and swimming pool overlooking the ocean, was bought by the couple in late Marchas the international coronavirus pandemic began to take hold. For Indigenous caretakers, land use isnt premised on a return of investments; its about maintaining the land for the next generation, meeting the needs of the present, and a respect for the diversity of life. Purchased fromMadeleine Pickens, the former wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, the property deal is one of the largest ever recorded in the area,The Wall Street Journalreported. 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He added: 'In addition, the states oldest winery, Chateau Ste. Bill Gates is now the largest private landowner in the country. One of the largest plots of land owned by a subsidiary of the Gateses investment arm in Louisiana, Angelina Plantation, was previously owned by former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, who died last year, a month after being released from prison. Farmland in those parts is valuable, commanding prices between $10,000 and $15,000 per acre, far beyond the state average of about $2,000. Is this simply a diversification of Gates' massive tech investment portfolio? And the firm said its very supportive of sustainable farming. And Bill Gates new book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster positions himself as a thought leader in how to stop putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and how to fund what he has called elsewhere a global green revolution to help poor farmers mitigate climate change. One of those farms, Stanley Farms, specialized in Vidalia onions, and another, Coggins Farms, focused on growing carrots. , said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. His largest holding is in Louisiana (69,071 acres), followed by Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Arizona (25,750 acres). But billionaire class assertions that they are philosopher kings and climate-conscious investors who know better than the original caretakers are little more than ruses for what amounts to a 21st century land grab with big payouts in a for-profit economy seeking green solutions. He's one of the richest men in the world and the largest individual owner of farmland in the country. In fact, he owns some of the land that produces potatoes used to make McDondalds french fries. This is where a country sells land when the owner becomes delinquent on their property taxes. These states include: Arizona - 25,750 acres; Arkansas - 47,927 acres The billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist has quietly amassed nearly 270,000 acres of farmland across the country, but thats still a relatively small slice of the nations nearly 900 million total farm acres. But even with his big new agricultural holdings, Gates still doesn't rank in the Top 100 of private landowners overall in the U.S. - when considering owners of land of all types, not just agricultural. And in Florida, farmers grow carrots on their property. While he owns a significant amount, it is a relatively small slice of the nations nearly 900 million total farm acres. Bill Gates may no longer be the worlds richest man, but he can claim a new title: Americas farmland king. Bill Gates was also an early investor in fake-meat companies aiming to combat the environmental harms of raising livestock by creating more convincing, plant-based alternatives. If you own a good amount of land, then you have the possibility of subdividing it into multiple lots that can generate separate income streams. APS ASSESSMENT: False. Someone else is building that equity on their back, said Johnathan Hladik, the policy director at the Center for Rural Affairs, who is also a farmer in Nebraska. BlackRock, meanwhile, is also not the owner of the majority of single family houses in the country. In total, Malone owns roughly 2.2million acres of land and has a net worth of around $9.22billion, earning him the nickname the Cable Cowboy.. The 14,000 acres in Washington is used for potatoes and in Florida the land is used for carrots. The biggest chunks of Gates holdings are in Louisiana and Arkansas, where he owns 69,071 acres and 47,927 acres, respectively, the outlets research found. Bill and Melinda have purchased numerous properties in Wellington, Florida, over the years. Black, Mexican, Asian, and Native people, of course, were categorically excluded from the benefits of a federal program that subsidized and protected generations of white wealth. So what is this guy planning? The foundation aims to support country-led inclusive agricultural transformation across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to its website. Adding to the confusion, Blackstone was once a major investor in BlackRock, but sold off its stake in the 1990s. In other words, when the economy is struggling, the value of farmland generally doesnt depreciate. Renewable energy company Savion has an option to buy the property for what is being called Oak Run Solar Project, according to Madison County property records. Bill Gates is best known for revolutionizing personal computing, but lately he's gotten back to the land. Bill Gates now owns more farmland than anyone else in the United States, as the tech tycoon has quietly purchased 242,000 acres of farmland in several states across the country. The report on US Land Ownership ("Land Ownership Report" / 1-21-22) indicates that Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and holder of 45% of its shares, is the main owner of North American land, owner of an area of more than 250,000 acres (101,171.4 hectares) deployed throughout the immense US territory, the fourth in the world in order of . Bill Gates had managed to purchase nearly 269,000 acres of land in more than 12 states in the US. This is part of APs effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. The principal danger of private farmland owners like Bill Gates is not their professed support of sustainable agriculture often found in philanthropic work its the monopolistic role they play in determining our food systems and land use patterns. It may even be easier to sell smaller lots than it would be to market the entire portion of land that you invest in. The land we all live on should not be the sole property of a few. According to Forbes, the worlds billionaires saw their wealth swell by $1.9tn in 2020, while more than 22 million US workers (mostly women) lost their jobs. If you are unsure where to start, you can also check country tax sales. We know that one of the best ways to sequester carbon is through the soil. *According to figures compiled by The Land Report in 2019. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, BillGatesbuys nearly $1B Heineken stake despite not being a big beer drinker, Bill Gates daughter living in $51M NYC home as she welcomes first baby, Elites want to use AI to censor political opponents, Bill Gates claims his private jet habit not part of the climate problem. The Microsoft co-founder is considered the largest private owner of farmland in the country with some 269,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last years edition of the Land Report 100, an annual survey of the nations largest landowners. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File ), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. The Microsoft co-founder is considered the largest private owner of farmland in the country with some 269,000 acres across dozens of states, according to last years edition of. Through our professional experience in land acquisition, we have found that people buy and sell land for many different reasons and have learned that it can be an investment for profit, vacation, or any opportunity that suits your needs and desires. It just seemed like a good thing to do., 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, A map has revealed which billionaire owns the most land in the US, and it's not Bill Gates, John Malone owns about 2.2million acres of land across the United States, In comparison, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates owns about 270,000 acres of farmland, Malone is worth an estimated $9.22billion, Meet the largest landowner in the US as map reveals stunning amount of land billionaire owns and its not Bill Gates. When pressed during a book discussion on Reddit about why hes gobbling up so much farmland, Gates claimed, It is not connected to climate [change]. The decision, he said, came from his investment group. Cascade Investment, the firm making these acquisitions, is controlled by Gates. Much of Turner's land is used as grazing land for over 50,000 head of buffalo the largest private herd of bison in the world. A hint at Gates huge farm holdings emerged in a 2014 Wall Street Journal profile of Michael Larson, the money manager who serves as Cascades chief investment officer. The acquisitions are held directly, as well as through Gates' personal investment entity, Cascade Investments. Today, Bill Gates owns 242,000 acres of farmland in 19 states. I mean, it is unlikely that one of the richest people in the world would invest in something that wasnt a good investment, right? For five generations, the Reed Family has owned and operated the logging company Green Diamond Resource Co. ', In 2008, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced $306 million in grants designed to boost the yields and incomes of millions of small farmers in Africa as well as 'other parts of the developing world so they can lift themselves and their families out of hunger and poverty.'. The Gates Rancho Santa Fe estate was purchased in 2014 because of its horse stables and proximity to a local race horse track. Dailymail.com Reporter Recently, an article in Land Report stated that Bill Gates owns more American farmland than anyone else. Besides the enrollment of their landholdings in Leading Harvest, the Gates Foundation in 2020 also created an agricultural nonprofit, Gates Ag One, which focuses on bringing affordable solutions to small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to improve crop productivity. Private Residence at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana: Estimated $5-25 Million. He never did anything that different from before he got here and what other farmers were doing nearby.". A survey of the Gateses farmland holdings shows that a broad range of the vegetables that Americans eat can be traced back to his land and that some of this land has also been owned by other billionaires. The firm is a shareholder in Dallas-based Invitation Homes, which owns nearly 80,000 single-family rentals nationwide. That makes Invitation Homes the largest operator of single-family rental homes in the country, but still represents a tiny fraction of all such homes. Almost 300,000 acres is a lot of land for one family or private individual to own, but it's still just a. Additionally, through his personal investment firm, Cascade, Bill Gates owns approximately half of the Four Season Holdings' hotel chain. As of 2020, industry reports show he owned about 0.027% of U.S. farmland. A few years ago, Bill Gates has announced plans to build a smart city outside of Buckeye in Arizona. The land that Bill Gates owns is used to grow soybeans, corn, cotton, and rice over 70,000 acres in northern Louisiana. The title for largest landholdings overall goes to US businessman John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, who owns 2.2million acres. Another 5,500 acres was sold to Generation Land Georgia, a company that shares an address with Miami-based Optimum Agriculture, which bought Generations Farms in 2019. Wonderful Company cofounders Stewart and Lynda Resnick (net worth: $7.1 billion) ranked number three . In May, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates revealed in a Twitter statement their decision to end their marriage after 27 years. It is unclear why Gates, better known as a self-confessed computing 'nerd', has invested in farmland so heavily, and details of the land are scarce,as revealed in The Land Report. Wealth accumulation always goes hand-in-hand with exploitation and dispossession. Bill Gates now owns the most farmland of anyone in the United States, according to a recent report from The Land Report . Dailymail.com Reporter, Meet John Malone of Liberty Global the Darth Vader of Wall Street and the man who wants a slice of Formula One, Bill Gates is accused of hypocrisy after joining bidding war to buy the world's largest private jet operator - one month before he releases his book preaching about climate change, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' 4 About 40 percent of farmland is owned by seniors 65 or older, according to 2014 estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, meaning more farmland is expected to come on the market soon. Some of that land, including nearly 300 acres, was sold in 2019 to the California-based Grimmway Farms, the worlds largest carrot producer. The Microsoft co-founder faced several claims that he owned a majority of America's farmland earlier this year. While most people do not have the ability to buy hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland like Bill Gates, anybody can look at land as an investment opportunity to take advantage of. Agriculture is also a key focus area for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the massive charity run by Gates and his wife. Gates is not the only billionaire on The Land Report 's list of top private farmland owners. He is an assistant professor in the American studies department at the University of New Mexico. In 2014, Cascade Investments combined both of those companies and the land into Generations Farms, which continued to grow vegetables. His firms largest farmland acquisition happened in 2017, when it acquired 61 farming properties from a Canadian investment firm to the tune of $500m. Bill Gates may no longer be the world's richest man, but he can claim a new title: America's farmland king. The company also took to Twitter to reject the false narrative. When fully developed the area could be home to 200,000 residents and be similar in size to the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, The Land Report said. Malone also has 25% shares in Liberty Global, the largest international cable company with just under 30million subscribers, and owns 8% of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. Gates diversified his investment portfolio through land ownership, but why? Bill and Melinda have diversified their portfolioworth more than $130 billionfor years, and one of their favorite investments is real estate. They accounted for almost 1% of the agricultural land in the United States. Real estate mogul and owner of the Los Angeles Rams, Stan Kroenke, owns 1.4 million acres of land in the United States, including a 124,000 acre ranch in Montana and additional land in Wyoming. Land will likely never be a bad investment, as long as the land is healthy and properly located. Bill Gates is in the money flow business, and farmland, as well as other land, can generate a lot of money. buying an increasing share of the U.S. housing market. Bill Gates' 20,000 acres in Nebraska help make him the top farmland owner in the U.S. Christopher Burbach Jan 24, 2021 Updated May 17, 2022 0 1 of 10 This cropland west of Malmo, Nebraska, is. At this valuation, Gates likely paid close to $2 billion for the luxury-hotel business. 5. In May, Bill Gates also transferred about $850 million in shares of the agricultural machinery company John Deere to his wife after the two shared publicly their plans to divorce. from February that showed there were more than 895 million total acres of farmland in the country last year. Some raw land may even be as affordable as a few thousand dollars, which can be an affordable and cost-effective investment strategy (or just a place to use for personal reasons). The Microsoft co-founder and his former wife, Melinda, are the top farmland owners in. So if now the best farmers can do if you want to stay in farming is rent this land, you're not going to get the benefits that come with land ownership.. Adding to the confusion, Blackstone was once a major investor in BlackRock, but sold off its stake in the 1990s. Can you imagine having that much property? The potential is endless. It can be used for residential development, commercial projects, industrial zoning, public or semi-public use, agriculture, or right of way (a way for others to access a different piece of land or portion of the land). The acquisition, however . But, As of February 2021, Gates has made headlines across the wor. This can be an affordable way to get started with your raw land investments. Bill Gates was quietly becoming the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. What Is The Banking Process To Buy Raw Land, Price Of Agricultural Land In The Philippines. You may have heard that Bill Gates owns a lot of land, but you may not know how much. Its a hedging strategy, said Daniel Bigelow, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University, who previously served as a USDA research economist. That doesnt mean that every piece of land is a good investment, but a significant amount of land will offer a high return on investment. Lemmon Holdings, the billionaire spent $80 million to purchase. Theres a more cynical calculation. The state's Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley had inquired into the land sale, and on Wednesday issued a letter saying the transaction complied with an archaic anti-corporate [] Social media users are falsely claiming that Gates owns the majority of U.S. farmland. Bill Gates investment company, Cascade Investments, has invested in hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in the last 10 years. As more and more land gets developed, if you own land that is in the path of the plan, you could have buyers offering you big money to take hold of the property. In Georgia and Florida, NBC News independently confirmed through research of property records that the Gateses investment firm owns more than 7,000 acres through two limited liability companies, Lakeland Sands and Lakeland Sands Florida, LLC. The agency further found that over 50 percent of cropland is rented to farmers who dont own their land. Like wealth, land ownership is becoming concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, resulting in a greater push for monocultures and more intensive industrial farming techniques to generate greater returns. Farmland offers a strategy that is completely separated from his other wealth and investments. A 2014 Wall Street Journal profile of Larson, Cascade's chief investment officer, hinted at the beginning of that portfolio, after the piece noted that the firm owns 'at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states or an area seven times bigger than Manhattan.'. That title goes to John Malone, the former CEO of Tele-Communications Inc, which was purchased by AT&T Inc in 1999 for more than $50billion. While the Gates own a lot of farmland, nonfarmers own 283 million acres of farmland throughout the U.S. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_3',103,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-medrectangle-4-0'); This article will go into detail about how much land Bill Gates owns and why he owns so much. Our exposure to Invitation Homes is owning its stock in mutual funds we manage, not buying houses w/ them,. Bill Gates has secured legal approval for the controversial purchase of thousands of acres of prime North Dakota farmland, after the deal drew fury from the state's residents. Since then, it has been revealed that the two never signed a prenuptial agreement, instead opting for a separation agreement. The process of splitting the couples assets will be a mammoth task. Bill Gates uses farmland as investment vehicle, owning 269,000 acres of land. This map shows that area as a rectangle that can be dragged. Behind Gates in terms of investment in farmland are the cofounders of the Wonderful Company, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, with 190,000 acres. | Photo by Wikimedia Commons . A 6,300-acre farm owned by Bill Gates in Madison County could become the site of one of the nation's largest solar farms. Gates portfolio comprises about 242,000 acres of farmland and nearly 27,000 acres of other land across 19 states, according to The Land Report, a magazine for land investors that tracks the nations biggest landowners.