China's former richest man, Chen Tianqiao, has just returned to the spotlight after a long fade from the limelight — becoming one of the most foreign nationals who own the most land in the United States.
Chen owns 108,000 acres (80,000 and 127 hectares) of woodland in Oregon, ranking 82nd on the list of U.S. landowners, according to a report by Bloomberg on Monday, citing the latest rankings from the American magazine Land Report.
He is the second-largest non-American owner of land in the United States. First place went to the Irving family of Canada, which owns more than 1.2 million acres of farmland in Maine. Tianqiao, 50, bought the farmland in Oregon from Fidelity National Financial Ventures for $85 million in 2015.
Last month, Oregon's tax records revealed that the beneficial owner's name was Shanda Asset Management, the same name as Chen's holding group in Singapore.
According to the data, the most valuable part of the forest land purchased by Chen Tianqiao is called Bull Springs Skyline Forest, which belongs to Shanda's Crown Pacific Real Estate, adjacent to the Deschutes National Forest in central Oregon and just minutes away from the emerging mountain town of Bend. This portion of land covers 32,995 acres, or 20 percent of Chen's total land area in Oregon.
Bull Springs Skyline Forest
For nearly a century, Bull Springs Skyline Forest has been planted and logged, mainly by ponderosa pine, which is used to make medium-density furniture panels. After the acquisition by Chen, the price of Bull Springs Skyline Forest rose to $127 million ($3,800 per acre). Prices then retreated, to $95 million ($2,800 per acre).
If the sale is successful at the listing price, the proceeds will be sufficient to cover the full cost of acquiring all of Crown Pacific Properties' assets. In recent years, the super-rich seeking a hedge against inflation and real estate have increasingly turned to invest in farmland and other rural properties. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average value of arable land in the U.S. rose 8.1% last year and has risen by more than a third since 2020.
Food demand and high inflation are driving land yields, but interest in rare properties such as Classic West Ranches is also a factor, as they offer both leisure and return on investment potential.
The largest landowners in the United States are the Emerson family, owners of the timber empire Sierra Pacific Industries, followed by billionaires John Malone, Ted Turner and Stan Kroenke.
Foreign ownership of U.S. land, especially agricultural land, has become a sensitive political issue in recent years. According to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as of 2021, non-U.S. individuals own about 40 million acres of agricultural land in the United States, and Chinese entities account for 0.03% of all U.S. farmland.
According to The Land Report, in addition to land in Oregon, Chen Tianqiao also owns about 500,000 acres (about 2,000 square kilometers) of woodland in Ontario, Canada. In addition, Chen Tianqiao has purchased several landmark American properties. In 2018, he and his wife, Qianqian Luo, paid $39 million for the Vanderbilt Tower on East 69th Street in Manhattan. In 2021, Seeley Mudd Estate, located in the suburbs of Los Angeles, was sold to an unnamed buyer for $25 million, who was later confirmed to be Mr. and Mrs. Chen.
Built in 1934, the Seeley Mulder Estate has been the residence of the president of the University of Southern California for more than four decades. From there, Mr. and Mrs. Chen have easy access to the Tianqiao Chen Institute of Brain Science at Caltech. In early December 2016, Chen Tianqiao announced the establishment of a $1 billion fund to support brain science research, and the first batch of $115 million was donated to the California Institute of Technology in the United States for basic brain research.
Chen Tianqiao, a native of Zhejiang, graduated from Fudan University in 1995 with a major in economics, and then joined Lujiazui Group, a large state-owned enterprise group in Shanghai, and was soon promoted to secretary to the general manager of the group.
At the end of 1999, Chen Tianqiao, his wife Luo Qianqian, his brother Chen Danian and other five people jointly established Shanda Network Development Co., Ltd. with 500,000 yuan to operate an online community game stame.com, and in January 2000, it received $3 million in venture capital from China.com.
But the originally optimistic animation community had no income, and Shanda was once in a state of "burning money and waiting for death". In 2001, Chen Tianqiao, who was in trouble, decided to "gamble" on life and death. He took the agency of "Legend" from South Korea's ACTOZ with only $300,000 left, thus starting the grand "Legend". After only one month of operation, the online game was profitable. A year and a half later, Legend has captured 68% of China's online game market.
At that time, Shanda Network became the online game operator with the largest number of online users in the world, with nearly 100 million registered users, and was listed on NASDAQ. "Legend" became Chen Tianqiao's money printing machine, and in the second year of its release, Chen Tianqiao made a net profit of 1 million a day.
Shanda's listing set many records, making it the most valuable Chinese concept stock company and the world's most valuable game company at that time. In 2004, Chen Tianqiao made it to the Hurun Report with a value of 8.8 billion, becoming the youngest richest man in China's history. In 2005, his net worth was as high as 15 billion yuan. This year, he was just over 31 years old.
Later, he developed panic disorder. His condition deteriorated amid increased competition and regulatory pressure. In the end, Chen Tianqiao decided to save his health. These experiences eventually led him to a new path. Chen Tianqiao took $1 billion out of his personal fortune of at least $2.4 billion to fund human brain research.
In 2010, Tan Tianqiao immigrated to Singapore and moved the headquarters of his holding group from China to Singapore. In February 2012, Shanda Games was delisted from NASDAQ and completed privatization, and Chen Tianqiao cashed out 8.8 billion yuan. On November 17, 2014, Chen Tianqiao stepped down from all his positions at Shanda.
After the privatization of Shanda Games, Singapore-based Shanda Asset Management became Chen's main investment vehicle. According to Shanda Games' official information, Chen Tianqiao's investments cover listed stocks and private equity, venture capital and real estate.