Bill Gates may no longer be the richest man in the world, but he could claim a new title: America’s Agricultural Land King.
The billionaire Microsoft co-founder has become the largest owner of agricultural land in the United States by quietly buying plots in the country, according to a new report.
Gates’ portfolio covers approximately 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 monitors the country’s largest landowners.
The largest chunks of Gates’ property are in Louisiana and Arkansas, where he owns 69,071 acres and 47,927 acres, respectively, the findings of the sales area found.
He also reportedly owns about 16,000 acres in his home state of Washington, including a 14,500-acre piece in the Horse Heaven Hills area that was purchased for nearly $ 171 million.
The land is directly and indirectly owned by Cascade Investment, the Seattle firm that Gates – according to the country – established the third richest man in the world with a net worth of $ 132 billion, according to Bloomberg, to manage his huge fortune. Report.
A tip about Gates’ large farm ownership appeared in a 2014 Wall Street Journal profile of Michael Larson, the money manager who serves as Cascade’s chief investment officer. The article notes that the firm “owns at least 100,000 acres of farmland in California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana and other states – or an area seven times the size of Manhattan.”
It is uncertain why Gates has invested in so much agricultural land and how his pieces are currently being used. Cascade did not immediately respond to a phone message Friday, and the company declined to comment on The Land Report “other than to say that Cascade is very supportive of sustainable farming,” the outlet said.
Agriculture is also a major focus area for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the massive charity run by Gates and his wife. The foundation aims to support ‘rural guided inclusive agricultural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia’, according to its website.
Although Gates is the largest owner in the United States, he is far from being the largest landowner in the country. The crown belongs to Liberty Media chairman John Malone, who owns 2.2 million acres, according to The Land Report.
This article was first published on NYPost.com