Chinese Gaming Billionaire Is the Second-Biggest Foreign Owner of US Land

Tianqiao Chen, a Chinese billionaire who built his fortune through online gaming and once sought to be named "the Disney of China," has become the second-biggest foreign owner of land in the U.S.

The 50-year-old owns 198,000 acres of Oregon timberland, which makes him the 82nd-largest property owner in the U.S., according to the Land Report's latest ranking of the top 100 land owners in the country.

Chen acquired the land from Fidelity National Financial Ventures for $85 million — or $430 per acre — in 2015 through an investment vehicle. In December, state tax records revealed that the land was currently owned by Shanda Asset Management LLC, which shares a name with Chen's Singapore-based investment group, according to the Land Report.

With that property in hand, Chen is just the second-biggest individual foreign owner of American land. Canada's Irving Family — which owns several companies — has 1.26 million acres of land in Maine and is the sixth-largest owner of U.S. land overall.

U.S. farmland and other rural properties have received an uptick in interest from ultra-wealthy investors looking for a hedge against inflation. The average value of U.S. cropland increased by 8.1% in 2023 to $5,460 per acre, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Chen founded his online gaming company, Shanda Interactive, in 1999, which just five years later became the first Chinese company of its kind to be listed on the Nasdaq. Chen took the company private in 2012 and moved his holding groups' headquarters to Singapore from China.

Chen's investments include both venture and private equity, as well as public markets and real estate, according to Shanda's website. Chen and his wife, Chrissy Lou, have also turned to philanthropy; in 2016, the couple donated $115 million to the California Institute of Technology to establish the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience.

He and his wife also own homes in New York and California. They bought the Vanderbilt Mansion on East 69th Street in Manhattan for $39 million in 2018, according to The Real Deal.

Then, in 2021, his holding company purchased the University of Southern California's presidential mansion — nicknamed the Seeley Mudd Estate — in San Marino for $25 million, according to the Los Angeles Times.