A mystery company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires has purchased tens of thousands of acres of land for more than $800 million to build a new city near San Francisco

A mystery company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires has been snatching up land in a northern California county in an apparent bid to build an entirely new city in the state.

The New York Times reported those investors include some of the Valley's most recognizable names, from Marc Andreessen to Laurene Powell Jobs.

The company, Flannery Associates, has spent $800 million to purchase thousands of acres of farmland in Solano County, which sits northeast of San Francisco, court documents obtained by Insider show.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Flannery has purchased about 52,000 acres of farmland around Travis Air Force Base since 2018. According to the report, government officials began investigating the purchases due to concerns that foreign interests may be behind the company.

(Travis Air Force Base Google Maps)

"So the entire base is encircled now," Catherine Moy, mayor of Fairfield, told ABC 7 News. "So there's no part that isn't touched by Flannery."

Little is known about Flannery Associates or its specific city plans.

According to the Times, the company is led by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader.

Flannery's backers include Andreessen, Powell Jobs, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and others, according to the report.

It's unclear how much they each invested in the company.

(Solano County, California, potential site of the mystery city Google Maps)

In 2017, Flannery Associates pitched an idea to turn the Solano County land into a walkable city powered by clean energy and housing tens of thousands of residents, The Times reported. Real estate data shows that the current median housing price in the county is $585,000.

In an email obtained by the Times, Moritz said that Flannery had purchased about 1,400 acres of land for less than $5,000 per acre.

But the spending price has since soared, with Flannery spending up to $15,000 per acre, lawyers for Flannery Associates said in court documents.

Tech founders, including Bill Gates and Elon Musk, have also had visions of their own cities.

Musk recently purchased 3,500 acres of land outside of Austin, Texas, to build a town he intends to call "Snailbrook."

Ref:A mystery company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires has purchased tens of thousands of acres of land for more than $800 million to build a new city near San Francisco (businessinsider)