[Diggers350] Bill Gates Robot-Tractor Revolution... & Buying 100ks Acres of Farmland

[Tony Gosling]

Another Monopoly? Bill Gates is Now America’s Biggest Farmland Owner

https://www.sgtreport.com/2021/10/another-monopoly-bill-gates-is-now-americas-biggest-farmland-owner/

Are Robots the Farmers of Tomorrow? [please someone, tax this twerp]

https://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/are-robots-the-farmers-of-tomorrow/690863.html
By 
<https://www.farmanddairy.com/author/alanguebert>Alan 
Guebert - October 28, 2021
<https://s3-wp-lyleprintingandp.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27121004/john-deere-8370r-3288625_1280.jpg>
John Deere



Focus on technology

In a five-minute video on its website, the 
company repeatedly notes how its rapidly 
advancing technology, not diesel-fueled 
horsepower, will assist Deere customers around 
the world to make better, faster decisions to 
“optimize operations” and maximize profits.”

That positioning has caught the attention of 
other investors like ARKQ, an ETF, or exchange 
traded fund, “that seeks long-term growth
 by 
investing in
 autonomous technology and robotics companies
”

For example, ARKQ’s biggest holding is Tesla, 
Inc., the world’s leading electric vehicle maker. 
Interestingly, its second-largest holding, at 
$180 million, is Trimble, Inc., the Silicon 
Valley firm that specializes in “geospatial 
engineering” ­ think anything GPS-driven or 
GPS-connected like tractors, combines and construction equipment.

Another large ARKQ holding is, yep, Deere; it 
owns $76 million dollars of Deere stock. In 
short, Wall Street is betting that tomorrow’s 
biggest, most autonomous ­ a $10 word meaning 
robotic ­ farm equipment manufacturer will be Deere.

In fact, YouTube is packed with videos of several 
autonomous versions of sparkling green ­ and 
driverless ­ John Deere tractors. And, hard as it 
might be to believe, some are electric and none 
have cabs, seats, steering wheels or drivers.

As such, tomorrow’s farming, like today’s 
manufacturing, will feature even more robots and 
even fewer people. Neither, after all, can go on strike.



Big beneficiary

One of that rise’s biggest beneficiaries is one 
of Deere’s biggest shareholders, Cascade 
Investments LLC, Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ investment sidecar.

According to the May 6 online edition of 
thewealthadvisor.com, “Cascade owned more than 31 
million shares of the farm equipment maker,” 
worth about $10.4 billion today. (Deere isn’t 
Cascade’s only farm-linked investment. This past 
May, it was widely reported that the then-married 
Bill and Melinda Gates, owned “242,000 acres of 
farmland [mostly in the South] worth ‘more than $690 million.’”)

Farmers and ranchers continue to see Deere as the 
premium ­ and premium-priced ­ farm equipment 
manufacturer in the U.S. Investors and Deere, 
however, have a more expansive view of its lawn 
and garden, farm, forestry, landscaping and highway equipment.
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