More surprising, however, was finding out that Bill and Melinda Gates own more private farmland than anyone else in the United States—to the tune of 242,000 acres. That's a lot of land for this re-invented Farmer Bill and it begs the question: Why do Bill and Melinda Gates own so much farmland? 

Diversifying the Gates Investment Portfolio

As of January 2019, according to Investopedia and the Bloomberg Billionaires index, Bill Gates is the third-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $132 billion, behind both Elon Musk ($197 billion) and Jeff Bezos ($182 billion). What do these mega-billionaires do with all their money? Needless to say they give a lot of it away through philanthropic activities – but by and large, they're investing it.