Stan Kroenke, billionaire The world’s most valuable investment portfolio A host of sports clubs, including the Los Angeles Rams and London’s Arsenal FC, can claim another title. The Colorado real estate mogul was once known as “silent stanHe is the largest private landowner in the United States, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to speak to the media. Report The Land Report is published this week. Kroenke owns 2.7 million acres, about the size of 2 million football fields and larger than the vast Yosemite National Park.
Kroenke’s holdings jumped from No. 4 in 2025 to No. 1 on the list, thanks in large part to the December purchase of a 937,000-acre ranch from the Singleton family behind the industrial conglomerate Teledyne Technologies. It is the largest land purchase in the United States in more than a decade.
Kroenke credits the start of his real estate empire to Walmartand not just because of his marriage (since 1974) to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke. The sports and real estate mogul made his first fortune through Develop shopping centersmany with large retailers as their core appeal.
Last year, Kroenke surpassed other billionaires John “Cable Cowboy” MaloneIn second place, media mogul Ted Turner was third. The Emerson family, which runs forest products company Sierra Pacific Industries, owns an estimated 2.4 million acres of land, mostly forestland. Bill Gates, who owns 275,000 acres of land, ranked 44th. (He uses his own property, much of which is farmland owned through his investment group Cascade Investment, Growing onions, carrots and potatoes used in McDonald’s French fries.)
In addition to their staggering wealth, many of those on the list have a drive to snap up farmland, including pastures and timberlands, and a pursuit of land. emerging asset classes The ultra-rich can protect their wealth and hedge against inflation and the volatility of some traditional assets. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that in 2025, the value of U.S. farmland will average about $4,350 per acre, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%, and an increase of nearly 2% after adjusting for inflation. data. Nearly 40% of U.S. farmland is now owned by landlords, who lease the land to farmers and operators.
As farmland grows in popularity, it has become a $4.3 trillion asset class, said Steve Bruere, president of Peoples Company, an agricultural rest real estate company.
“If you believe you want to diversify, and you also believe we’re going to have underlying inflation — which is what a lot of people want right now — then farmland is a great option for them,” Brewer told wealth.
There was no immediate response from Kroenke, through his holding company. wealthRequest for comment.
The rise of the farmland asset class
The 2008 financial crisis fueled a desperate desire among investors to seek alternative investments, and America’s super-rich turned to farmland to diversify their portfolios, just like today’s investors Shift to alternative assetsFrom gold to private credit as a hedge against fears of AI-driven market collapse.
very similar real estate boom Since the 1970s, today’s investors have rushed to farmland as a hedge against inflation, a physical asset that can retain and increase in value because it is a finite resource. After all, farmland values are positively correlated with inflation (meaning farmless land values will appreciate as inflation rises) and are uncorrelated with the market. Investors also theorize that farms will only become more valuable as populations grow, incomes rise and demand for food and fuel increases.
“Having some farmland in a part of the world where arable land is decreasing every year, that’s why a lot of people like it,” Brewer said.
That doesn’t include passive income from leasing land to farmers, many of whom don’t have the funds to buy their own land, Brewer said.
Erin Foster West, policy campaign director for the National Young Farmers Alliance, said many farmers are unable to purchase the land they farm and renting is their only chance.
Farmland rents are growing at a more modest pace than the price of purchasing the land, making it an attractive option: The average rent for U.S. farmland rose to $161 per acre last year, up just 0.6% year over year, according to the USDA. USDA Land Value Survey. But it’s hard for migrant workers to compete with someone with deep pockets like Kroenke.
Tom Lee, a top analyst at Fundstrat, describes the situation as saying that agriculture has never recovered from the invention of frozen foods in the 1920s. He said in a recent appearance that before the freeze, agriculture accounted for 40% of the economy, freeing up more people’s time. G Marketing Professor podcast. “It allows people to reposition themselves and creates a whole new workforce,” Lee said.
It is difficult for farmers in the contemporary United States to outbid competitors like Silent Stein for farmland.
“This makes it more difficult for farmers to compete, especially new farmers who may be trying to get their first farm, or even existing farmers who may want to plant and expand,” Foster-West said. wealth.