$ cat ./records/cascade-investment-makes-gates-the-largest-private-farmland-owner-2021.txt
Cascade Investment Makes Gates the Largest Private Farmland Owner in the United States
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By 2021, Bill Gates — through his personal investment firm Cascade Investment and land management subsidiary Cottonwood Ag Management — had become the largest private farmland owner in the United States, with approximately 242,000 acres across 19 states including Louisiana (69,000 acres), Arkansas (47,900 acres), and Nebraska (20,600 acres). Gates has described the farmland investments as driven by interest in agricultural productivity innovation rather than land appreciation, with Cottonwood working with tenant farmers on soil health and sustainable practices. Total holdings have since grown to approximately 275,000 acres.
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-owns-275-000-154614844.html
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Related Accomplishments
2026
Gates Foundation Trust Sells Off the Last of Its Microsoft Stock
In the first quarter of 2026, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust sold its remaining Microsoft shares, fully exiting a position in the very company that created Gates's fortune — capping a long, deliberate diversification away from the stock. The endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy, managed separately from its grant-making through Cascade, is now anchored instead by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, railroads, and heavy-equipment makers. The sale underscored how thoroughly Gates's giving had decoupled from Microsoft's day-to-day fortunes.
2026
Gates's Charitable Endowment Is Now Led by Berkshire, Not Microsoft
By 2026, the publicly disclosed stock portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust — the endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy — was led not by Microsoft but by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway, Caterpillar, and Deere. Decades of diversification, plus Warren Buffett's stock gifts, left it concentrated in railroads, waste, heavy equipment, and Buffett's conglomerate, while Microsoft — the source of the original fortune — had largely been sold down. The unglamorous, value-oriented mix reflects the long stewardship of Gates's money manager, Michael Larson, through Cascade Investment.
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