Inside Bill Gates’ OTT mansion, Xanadu 2.0: the Microsoft billionaire splurged US$63 million to spruce up the home with tech, art and 24 bathrooms … but was it really a ‘nightmare’ for Melinda?

Oct 18 , 2022

Bill Gates owns the Xanadu 2.0 property. Photos: EPA, The Luxurist/Youtube, Luxurylaunches

Gates bought the Washington home for US$2 million, but spent much more to make the 66,000 sq ft property his own with hi-tech security, a trampoline room, and sand from St Lucia along the lake

Youngest daughter Phoebe loves the library, which houses a US$31 million, 16th-century Leonardo da Vinci codex, while Jennifer had her bridal shower at the home too

Today’s tech billionaires may think nothing of splashing fortunes on multimillion-dollar homes, but Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates arguably set the tone in 1988. He bought a plot in Washington state for just US$2 million but spent another US$63 million to build one of the most impressive homes on the planet, Xanadu 2.0. Seven years, 300 labourers and oodles of inspiration from Charles Foster Kane’s home in the film Citizen Kane led to this 66,000 sq ft abode.

Bill Gates’s home Xanadu 2.0. Photo: Luxurylaunches

The Gates family has branched out since then, the kids have grown up, and the parents have split. However, the house made out of 500 Douglas fir trees and seven types of stones stands tall and robust.

With the help of information gleaned from The Economic Times and real estate website Square Yards, let’s take a look at how one of the youngest billionaires of his time chose to live in what he once called “the coolest house of all time”.

Just how big is Bill Gates’ mansion, Xanadu 2.0?

Bill Gates’s home Xanadu 2.0. Photo: YouTube

Not many people know that Xanadu 2.0 is set on a large parcel of land surrounded by properties Gates bought for US$14 million to ensure ample privacy. The tech billionaire spent US$63 million to make the space his own. Today, the whole complex is worth US$130 million.

Architects James Cutler and Peter Bohlin were the draftsmen of the Pacific lodge-themed house. Designer Thierry Despont was responsible for the striking interiors and was personally appointed by Melinda Gates.

Bill Gates’s home Xanadu 2.0 under construction. Photo: Luxurylaunches

However, Melinda had creative differences with her then-husband and halted construction. The place was “a bachelor’s dream and a bride’s nightmare”, claimed a 2008 profile of Melinda in Fortune magazine, with “enough software and hi-tech displays to make a newlywed feel as though she were living inside a video game”.