American billionaires are showing off their farmland for elaborate hobbies, but a buying spree among the ultrarich risks pricing farmers out

No one seems to love the great outdoors as much as billionaires do.

America’s wealthiest are snapping up huge swathes of farmland, and while some are using it for their elaborate hobbies, agriculture advocates worry the broader trend of the rich purchasing tillage is putting the livelihood of actual farmers at risk.

Billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Alexis Ohanian have effectively dubbed themselves amateur yeoman, putting the ultrarichs’ hobby of tending to the land in the spotlight.

In an episode of the Idea Generation podcast published last month, the Meta CEO said he is working to create the perfect steak by raising wagyu and angus cattle on his ranch on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Called Ko’olau Ranch, the $300 million property has expanded to about 4,000 acres after he first bought land on the island in 2014.

“I’m very into the genetics of the cattle,” Zuckerberg said.

Investor and Reddit cofounder Ohanian offered a tour of his family farm in Jupiter, Florida, in a LinkedIn post on Thursday, showing off banana shoots, an herb garden, and apiary.

He has owned the farm for six years.

But these ventures are tiny compared to the ranchlands, timberlands, and cropfields many one-percenters are nabbing.

According to the 2025 Land Report 100 , Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates owns 275,000 acres of land, the 44th most of any American landowner.

Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has 462,000 acres, and Stan Kroenke, Los Angeles Ram owner and husband to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke, owns 2.7 million acres.

Neither Zuckerberg nor Ohanian crack the top 100 landowners.

In fact, farmland has become a $4.3 trillion asset class as it grows in popularity , according to Steve Bruere, president of agricultural real estate firm Peoples Company.

For many of the ultrawealthy, farmland has become a way to hedge against inflation and the volatility of other, more traditional assets: Last year, the value of U.S. farms was an average of about $4,350 per acre, a 4.3% year-over-year increase, according to U.S.