Cascade Investment, L.L.C. is an American

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

and private

investment firm An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under th ...

headquartered in

Kirkland, Washington Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in King County and the twelfth largest city in the state of Washington. ...

, United States. It is controlled by

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

, and managed by Michael Larson. More than half of Gates's fortune is held in assets outside his holding of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

shares. Cascade is the successor company to Dominion Income Management, the former investment vehicle for Gates's holdings, which was managed by convicted felon Andrew Evans. Larson reportedly directs Cascade's investments through Bill and Melinda Gates Investments, a firm that also manages the portfolios of the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be List of wealthiest charitable foundations, the third largest char ...

and other connected entities. Larson accrued over the twenty years from 1995 an 11% compound annual return, and as of 2014 had 100 employees working under his direction. In 2021, Cascade drew attention due to allegations of toxic work environment caused by Larson. With 269,000 acres of farmland (which has been historically countercyclical to the stock market) being held through a wide network of shell companies, Cascade Investment is the largest

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

owner in the United States. Cascade has managed Gates' stake in

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

since 2013. This constituted one of the investment firm's largest holdings. In 2022, the company sold $940 million worth of stocks, whittling Gates' stake down to 1.4 percent.

Notable investments

References

External links

Investment companies of the United States Bill Gates Conglomerate companies of the United States Holding companies of the United States Companies based in Kirkland, Washington American companies established in 1995 Financial services companies established in 1995 Holding companies established in 1995 1995 establishments in Washington (state) Privately held companies based in Washington (state) {{US-finance-company-stub