. The extensive tax avoidance by these titans of industry will always far exceed their supposed charitable donations to the public. Lets take a look at some of the reasons that land, particularly raw land, can be a good investment for Bill Gates or anybody else, including you. Bruere said some states such as Iowa enforce foreign ownership restrictions to prohibit foreign ownership or limit . In addition, he owns 25,750 acres of transitional land and 1,234 acres of recreational land for total land holdings of 268,984 acres. 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. While land is a limited resource, there is still less competition for raw land than there is with residential and commercial real estate. He hoped Gates would have invested in different farming techniques that could help turn around the ecological damages from big agriculture. Bill Gates had managed to purchase nearly 269,000 acres of land in more than 12 states in the US. In total he owns 268,984 acres of land of all types in 19 states, including a suburb up for development - as a so-called 'smart city' - outside Phoenix, Arizona. You can read more about us, here. He never did anything that different from before he got here and what other farmers were doing nearby.". Bill Gates does not own the majority of U.S. farmland. 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. 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 family's 1.7 million acres of land are primarily spread across Washington, Oregon, and California. The company also took to Twitter to reject the false narrative. Back in January, US magazine The Land Report revealed that Bill and Melinda Gates have amassed the largest portfolio of private farmland in the US, comprising an estimated 242,000 acres. The opportunities are virtually endless. Media billionaire Ted Turner has also invested in 2 million acres of land (much of it rangeland and prairie, rather than cropland) and earned the distinction of being the largest private owner of buffalo herds that roam the 200,000 acres of his private ranch, The Guardian reported. Bill Gates' $13.5 million investment in 2,100 sprawling acres of North Dakota land has raised questions as the purchase coincided with a controversial Chinese company buying 370 acres of. America's leading landowners added hundreds of thousands of acres to their holdings last year. The 1862 Homestead Act opened up 270m acres of Indigenous territory which amounts to 10% of US land for white settlement. Gates achievement, according to the report, is that hes largest private owner of farmland in the US. These billionaires have nothing to offer us in terms of saving the planet unless its our land back. Except, it seems, when it comes to a private individual selling some land to iconic billionaire Bill Gates. Gates-affiliated ownership covers vast swaths of farm and timberland, estimated to be 69,071 acres in all by niche land ownership publication The Land Repor t. Across the nation, Gates'. Arable land is not just profitable. Can you imagine having that much property? Although the price that the Gates paid for this property was never made public, theres a $300,000 initiation fee, and more than $37,000 in annual feesand you still have to purchase a home within the community. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File ), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. His first major purchase was Bell Ranch in New Mexico, a 290,100-acre plain saturated with mesas, rimrock canyons, pastures and a bell-shaped mountain. Weve never been one of the big institutional buyers of single family homes, BlackRock, single-family rentals nationwide. Small farmers and Indigenous people are more cautious with the use of land. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-leader-1','ezslot_8',107,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-leader-1-0'); Even if you buy the land with the purpose of selling it at a later time when the area undergoes more development, you can still use the land in the meantime. 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. has grabbed headlines in recent days, some prominent voices have taken to social media to claim that some other significant acquisitions by deep-pocketed individuals and corporations have largely flown under the radar. It was the highest priced land sale in the US that year. Tuesday, the office of the Attorney General sent out a letter asking the Red River Trust to confirm how the company plans to use the land . Properties up for grabs include a $123million mansion with a trampoline room and a $43million oceanfront mansion with a ten-person jacuzzi. than 85 million single-family homes in the country, and only around 15 million of those are rentals, Of those rentals, less than a third are owned by non-individual investors, according to. Bill Gates, one of the most powerful billionaires in the world and co-founder of tech giant Microsoft, and wife Melinda are ending their 27-year marriage, the two tweeted in unison on Monday. Farmers just aren't owning the assets anymore. While the Gateses are best known for their philanthropic work tackling large-scale societal problems, like funding the coronavirus vaccine and controlling malaria via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they have also invested in some companies rethinking food production and have endorsed the use of genetically modified seeds as one way to increase farming productivity and feed more people globally. They accounted for almost 1% of the agricultural land in the United States. 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!' These states include: Arizona - 25,750 acres; Arkansas - 47,927 acres These land holdings are separate from their previous investments in companies that support large-scale farming like Monsanto and the tractor manufacturer John Deere. Land is power, land is wealth, and, more importantly, land is about race and class. By 5. Bill Gates may no longer be the world's richest man, but he can claim a new title: America's farmland king. Malone continued, the forestry part of it in the Northeast is a pretty good business, with very low return on capital, but very stable and leverageable. Bill Gates is the largest private owner of American farmland, which is why so many people are wondering what he will use it for. "The agriculture sector is important. Gates' achievement, according to the report, is that he's largest private owner of farmland in the US. Weve answered hundreds of questions from people regarding the buying and use of land. Farmland offers a strategy that is completely separated from his other wealth and investments. You can also look at local resources in your area to see where land is being bought or sold. That was a virus I got from Ted Turner.. Not only that, but it fits in with Gates values as a philanthropist because he can keep the farmland healthy for future generations. | Photo by Wikimedia Commons . There are also growing trends revolving around the purchase of low acreage farmland and noncommercial farming. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow our food and who get far less praise for it. Data gathered by The Land Report and NBC News show that their land holdings range from 70,000 acres in north Louisiana, where their farmland grows soybeans, corn, cotton and rice, to 20,000 acres in Nebraska, where farmers grow soybeans. BlackRock also suggested it was being confused for the similarly-named investment management firm Blackstone, which until recently owned Invitation Homes. 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). U.S. Census Bureau data shows fewer than 20% of such properties are rentals, and the vast majority of those are owned by individual investors, not institutional investors like BlackRock. That's one of the many takeaways from the 2021 Land Report 100, which is compiled each year by Land Report magazine. The tech mogul, who is the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of $121billion, according to Forbes, has quietly built up a massive agriculture portfolio. 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. The Associated Press reports that last week, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates was cleared to purchase 2,100 acres of rural North Dakota farmland. In 1994 Bill and Melinda Gates are said to have hired Michael Larson to help them diversify their property portfolio. 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. Gates is not the only billionaire on The Land Report 's list of top private farmland owners. But why do a handful of people own so much land? 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. We loved familys outdoor adventures so much we started a land business just to help others buy their own land. According to the Tri-City Herald, 14,500 acres of Eastern Washington farmland was recently sold to the couple for almost $171 millionthats nearly $12,000 an acre. He is also the chairman and largest stakeholder of Liberty Media, possessing 28% of Discovery Communications, which was acquired by Scripps Network for $14.6billion. Learn more about fact-checking at AP. The 13,573-square-foot home has six bedrooms, 11 bedrooms and more luxury features than you can count. Gates is now America's largest private farmland owner, with hundreds of thousands of acres spanning across 19 U.S. states, according to the Land Report. With the Washington state acreage and other additions to his portfolio, The Land Report estimates that Gates now owns at least 242,000 acres of American farmland. In 2014, he reportedly purchased more than 4,500 acres in Suwannee County, Florida, for nearly $28 million. Investors generally are nevertheless buying an increasing share of the U.S. housing market. The conservation of lands is important, he said. retail, office buildings, hotels and apartment complexes, rather than single-family homes, but he declined to provide a breakdown. Bill Gates is buying up the majority of American farmland and BlackRock is buying the majority of single family houses but Im supposed to believe the biggest threat to us is Elon Musk buying Twitter? read one representative tweet thats been liked or shared on the platform more than 250,000 times. According to the Land Report in 2021, the Gateses had 242,000 acres of farmland, 1,234 acres or recreational land, and 25,750 acres of land that was in transition from farmland to residential and . The private residential area is home to numerous A-list celebrity couples including Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel. Bill Gates is best known for revolutionizing personal computing, but lately he's gotten back to the land. Its a hedging strategy, said Daniel Bigelow, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University, who previously served as a USDA research economist. 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). You just have to keep it relatively clean, mow it, and pay property taxes. You may also be interested in why a billionaire wants land.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_2',102,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-medrectangle-3-0'); Bill Gates is one of the largest farmland owners in the United States. After all, few can out-bid Bill Gates. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Ukrainian soldier takes out five tanks with Javelin missiles, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Hershey's Canada releases HER for SHE bars featuring a trans activist, Moment teenager crashes into back of lorry after 100mph police race. Last year, Bill and Melinda purchased a sprawling beachfront 6-bedroom, 4-bath home in Del Mar, Californiaoutside of San Diegofor $43 million. And we think it will provide good inflation protection in the long run. In fact it is so big that it is a little hard to conceptualize. The foundation aims to support country-led inclusive agricultural transformation across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to its website. In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling more than $690m. The Microsoft co-founder faced several claims that he owned a majority of Americas farmland earlier this year. 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 and Melinda Gates, who recently announced they're getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. You may have heard that Bill Gates owns a lot of land, but you may not know how much. Can You Build A Wedding Venue On Residential Land? 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 worlds richest 1% emit double the carbon of the poorest 50%, an 2020 Oxfam study found. Hes the landlord, or rather, the companies owned by his investment firm are the landlords. One per cent of the worlds farms control 70% of the worlds farmlands, one report found. So why did the Land Report dub him Farmer Bill this year? In fact, he reportedly owns more farmland than any other individual in America. 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. Bill Gates' Land Ownership. 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 FACTS: As Elon Musks bid to purchase Twitter has grabbed headlines in recent days, some prominent voices have taken to social media to claim that some other significant acquisitions by deep-pocketed individuals and corporations have largely flown under the radar. In 2018 Gates reportedly bought about 16,000 acres in his home state of Washington, including a 14,500-acre tract in the Horse Heaven Hills region that was purchased for nearly $171 million from an insurance company that had paid $75million for it in 2010. Bill Gates now owns the most farmland of anyone in the United States, according to a recent report from The Land Report . Recently, an article in Land Report stated that Bill Gates owns more American farmland than anyone else. The billionaire Microsoft co-founder has become the largest owner of farmland in the United States by quietly buying up massive plots across the county, a new report says. The agriculture sector is important, he wrote. 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Mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California: $18 Million. TRENDING: OUCH! Malone made his fortune as a media tycoon, building the company Tele-Communications, Inc, or TCI, and acting as its CEO before selling it to AT&T for $50 billion in 1999. As of 2020, industry reports show he owned about 0.027% of U.S. farmland. Someone else is owning that asset, whether it's rented equipment or land. Bill Gates owns more private farmland in the US than anyone else, an analysis by The Land Report found. That means Gates, whose net worth is estimated at some $134 billion. But he didn't, Quarterman said. Bill Gates now owns almost 242,000 acres of the continguous USA. Bill Gates owns more private farmland in the US than anyone else, an analysis by The Land Report found.His 242,000 acres of farmland stretch across 18 states Bill Gates owns farmland in 18 states . Private Residence at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana: Estimated $5-25 Million. One of the Gates favorite vacation homes is in the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. The LandReport, a magazine that provides news and insight on America's landowners, recently estimated that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is the largest farmland owner in the U.S., owning about 242,000 acres. 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. 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. He owns 2m acres and has the worlds largest privately owned buffalo herd. The farmland was purchased through a constellation of companies that all link back to the couples investment group, Cascade Investments, based in Kirkland, Washington. There is only a certain amount of land available on earth. Those animals, which are sacred to my people and were nearly hunted to extinction by settlers, are preserved today on nearly 200,000 acres of Turners ranchland within the boundaries of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty territory in the western half of what is now the state of South Dakota, land that was once guaranteed by the US government to be a permanent home for Lakota people. (Matt Odom / for NBC News), Image: John Quarterman (Matt Odom / for NBC News), Image: Philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda listen to the speech by French President Francois Hollande, prior to being awarded Commanders of the Legion of Honor at the Elysee Palace in Paris (Kamil Zihnioglu / Pool via Reuters), American businessman and philanthropist (born 1955). There farmers primarily grow soybeans, rice, corn and cotton. He backed Impossible Foods, which relies on genetically modified soybeans, and also held shares of Beyond Meat through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, though SEC filings show those shares were sold in 2019. Although the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is not directly connected with Cascade or its investments, it also has a farmland initiative: Gates Ag One, established in the Greater St. Louis area, with a mission to help 'smallholder farmers adapt to climate change and make food production in low- and middle-income countries more productive, resilient, and sustainable. 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. More surprising, however, was the fact that Bill and Melinda Gates own more private farmland . Bill Gates top private farmland owner in US. He also owns three hotels in Dublin, Ireland, and a fourth in Limerick. CNN founder Ted Turner owns 2 million acres of land largely in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Georgia. Well, youd think, if you're looking for somebody with enough capital to try that, he would go first. In every state where the Gateses own land, a tangled web of locally registered limited liability companies follow. And in Florida, farmers grow carrots on their property. Cascade Investments declined to comment on its interest in acquiring so much American farmland, but a spokesperson for the firm, Charles V. Zehren said it is very supportive of sustainable farming. He pointed out that in 2020, the acreage that Bill Gates firm owns was all enrolled in a sustainability program. This map shows that area as a rectangle that can be dragged. 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. Bill Gates owns more land than all of the entire city of New Why Bill Gates Is Buying Up U.S. Our inventory spans mostly in the western United States. Farmland can be an investment in several ways. Public records suggest Cascade Investments has bought its farmland through a web of at least 22 limited liability shell companies across the country. 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 and Melinda Gates, who recently announced theyre getting divorced and are dividing their assets, are deeply invested in American agriculture. , said his investment group was behind the purchases, and suggested it was linked to seed and biofuel development. 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. Gates and his investment team own more than 240,000 acres, as reported by Eric O'Keefe, including 2,167 acres in Michigan. 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. 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. Thanks for contacting us. Agriculture is also a key focus area for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the massive charity run by Gates and his wife. Bill and Melinda have diversified their portfolioworth more than $130 billionfor years, and one of their favorite investments is real estate. If they purchased the rest of their farmland for similar prices, that would put the value of their 242,000 acres at almost $3 billion. Although the sale price has never been made public, the 492-acre home was listed for $8.9 millionand we cant imagine Bill and Melinda doing much haggling. The gun and the whip may not accompany land acquisitions this time around. The 13,573-square-foot home has six bedrooms, 11 bedrooms and more luxury features than you can count. Bill and Melindas main residenceand by far their most impressive homeis a massive compound in Medina, Washington nicknamed 'Xanadu 2.0' in a reference to Citizen Kane. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Farmland CNBC 2.94M subscribers Subscribe 47K 4.5M views 1 year ago #CNBC Bill Gates made. The potential is endless. It can be sold as a property (or multiple properties), it can be used to produce things that people buy, or it can be rented out, like much of the farmland in the United States. However, his largest land holdings are in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres), Nebraska (20,588 acres . And not all the renters are local. Why aren't they giving more? If you are unsure where to start, you can also check country tax sales. He said that this is where large tracts of rich farmland is used to raise livestock and grow many of the vegetables that end up in grocery aisles up and down the East Coast. of the richest people in the country, owns less than one percent of the nations total farmland. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'askbamland_com-box-4','ezslot_4',104,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-askbamland_com-box-4-0'); Well, why would you think that a billionaire would want to own land? In 2009, the Gates' reportedly purchased a ranch in Wyoming that once belonged to Buffalo Bill Cody. There are also ways to generate passive income on the land without selling it because you can lease the land or sell the mineral rights, among other methods. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation! Gates shares ownership with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talalthe two purchased the chain in 2007 for $3.8 billion. They bought and later sold an additional 6,000 acres in Georgia, NBC News found. Gates has been buying land like its going out of style. Through his subsidiary Mt. In six years that number has more than doubled. Gates . Malone owns several ranching and real estate businesses predominantly in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. 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.