London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Big-Money Investors Like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Show Growing Appetite for 'Safe Asset'

Big-Money Investors Like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Show Growing Appetite for 'Safe Asset'

Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft, the world's largest personal computer software company, hit headlines in 2020 after becoming the largest private farmland owner in the US. Other billionaires have been similarly embracing this tax-efficient and generally “safe” investment.

America’s ultra-wealthy are increasingly investing in acres of farmland as they branch out in the search for new investments.

“It’s an asset with increasing value. It has great intrinsic value and beyond that, it is a limited resource,” American Farmland Trust CEO John Piotti

People like business magnate Bill Gates, Hungarian-born American billionaire Thomas Peterffy have been on a land acquisition spree.

In 2020, tech billionaire Bill Gates became the largest private farmland owner in the US, accumulating more than 269,000 acres. Purchases were made with the help of the Washington-based firm Cascade Investment and a number of shell companies. His farmland, spanning nearly 20 states, is used to cultivate vegetables such as carrots, soybeans, and potatoes, according to the agriculture outlet The Land Report.

Bill Gates, Co-Chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2019.


His largest holdings are in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Nebraska (20,588 acres).

The US Department of Agriculture estimates that about 30 percent of US farmland is rented out by owners who serve as landlords and aren’t involved in farming, like Gates. Purchases are often made from farmers who have owned the land for decades and while asset rich, may be cash poor.

“The economic realities for them are typical that they’ve spent their life farming. Their retirement, their equity is all in the land and tied up in selling land,” Holly Rippon-Butler, land campaign director at the National Young Farmers Coalition, was cited as saying by CNBC.

Profits are made from utilising the land in numerous ways. Around 39 percent of the 911 million acres of farmland across the US is rented out to farmers, according to data from the Agriculture Department.

In this photo taken Dec. 19, 2008, chickens are seen on a farm near Vacaville, Calif.


The majority - 80 percent - of that rented farmland is owned by non-operator landlords, who do not farm themselves. “You go buy a farm and you put that cash rental lease in place, you’re going to be looking at about 2.5% return on your capital,” Peoples Company President Steve Bruere said.


“The young farmers are just as happy to lease the land because whether you are young or old, it’s a business, right?” said Thomas Petterfy, chairman of Interactive Brokers.

Peterffy’s estimated net worth on Forbes magazine's 2021 list of The World's Billionaires is US$25 billion dollars, ranking him as the 65th richest man in the world. He is also the owner of 581,000 acres.

Fellow multi-billionaires Jeff Bezos and Stewart Resnick are similarly choosing to diversify their personal portfolios by investing in land. Amazon CEO Bezos is in 25th spot, according to The Land Report’s list of top private farmland owners, possessing 420,000 acres, mainly in west Texas.

Wonderful Company co-founders Stewart and Lynda Resnick ranked number three, with 190,000 acres.
American billionaire businessman and philanthropist Resnick bought his first farmland in California in 1978 as a hedge against inflation, in his first step towards building an agricultural empire.

“It’s a good investment… It’s smart, it’s stable, and especially over the past couple decades, it seems to be going up,” said Johnathan Hladik, a farmer and the policy director for the Center on Rural Affairs.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×