Chinese gaming billionaire named as second-biggest foreign landowner in US

The 80,127 hectares of Oregon timberland that he bought from the investment firm Fidelity National Financial Ventures catapulted him into the list, according to the Land Report, which ranks the biggest 100 owners of American land, including both American and foreign landowners.

The land was bought by one of his investment firms in 2015 and was only revealed to be owned by Chen’s Singapore-based holding group Shanda Asset Management from Oregon tax records last December.

In the U.S., he and his wife, Chrissy Luo, bought the Vanderbilt Mansion on East 69th Street in Manhattan for US$39 million in 2018 and the Seeley Mudd Estate in the Los Angeles suburbs for $25 million in 2021, the New York Post reported.

Aside from that, Chen also owns 202,324 hectares of timberland in Ontario, Canada, according to the Land Report.

Chen Tianqiao’s rise to billionaire status started out in 1999 with his online gaming company Shanda Interactive Entertainment, one of the largest companies in China’s online game industry.

He later resigned as the firm’s CEO and relocated his investment firm Shanda Group to Singapore, where he began investing in real estate with the establishment of Shanda World, according to the Shanda’s website.

As of January 9, his net worth is estimated at $1 billion by Forbes.

On the Land Report 100 ranking list, the only foreign landowner with more American land than him is the Canada’s Irving family with 513,057 hectares.

The biggest landowner in the U.S. is the Emmerson family with 975,697 hectares.