Bill Gates is now the biggest owner of farmland in America

Bill Gates has built an impressive agricultural property portfolio. Photo / Getty Images

Microsoft founder Bill Gates now owns the most farmland of anyone in the United States, according to The Land Report.

The tech mogul, the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of US$121 billion, has built up a massive agriculture portfolio across the US.

Gates, 65, owns 108,853 hectares of land in Washington, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.

His largest holdings include 27,952 hectares in Louisiana, 19,395 hectares in Arkansas, 10,420 hectares in Arizona, 8331 hectares in Nebraska and 6514 hectares in Washington state.

Despite his new land purchases, Gates still doesn't rank in the Top 100 of private landowners overall in the US - when considering owners of land of all types, not just agricultural, the Daily Mail reported.

The title for largest landholdings overall goes to US businessman John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, who owns 890,308 hectares.

Gates' land is reportedly held by his Cascade Investments, according to The Land Report.

It is unclear why the self-confessed computing 'nerd' has invested in farmland so heavily.

Gates and his wife Melinda oversee the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - the largest private charity in the world.

The foundation has donated millions of dollars in grants to promote sustainable agriculture in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and launched the non-profit Gates Ag One in 2020 to "speed up efforts to provide smallholder farmers in developing countries, many of whom are women, with access to the affordable tools and innovations they need to sustainably improve crop productivity and adapt to the effects of climate change."