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In 2021, his investment firm bought a controlling stake in the luxury hotel chain Four Seasons, where he’s been an investor since 1997. However, Gates is typically uninvolved in negotiations about his investments, and Das writes that he still keeps his ventures separate.
“Because of Gates’s ownership stake in Four Seasons, employees of the Gates Foundation are typically not allowed to stay at any of their hotels to avoid any appearance of impropriety,” the book says.
Gates is investing billions in building a new tech hub in Tampa
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Das shares more details about the 2016 partnership between Gates’s investment firm and investor Jeff Vinik to develop an ecosystem in Tampa, Florida, similar to that of Hudson Yards in Manhattan.
She writes that Vinik sold his stake to Gate’s Cascade Investment LLC in 2023, putting Gates’s firm in control of the Water Street project, which will likely cost around $4 billion. It’s the city’s largest real estate development in recent history, and it’s set to be complete in 2027, according to the book.
“The bet is that Tampa will become a destination for tech companies, and young, urban workers will follow, bringing business and hipness to central Florida’s often overlooked city,” Das writes.