Farris Wilks

Farris and brother Dan Wilks got a combined $3.5 billion in 2011 selling their fracking and oilfield services company to the Singapore government.They've been buying up land since then, acquiring more than 672,000 acres of land in five different states across the West.The brothers began their careers as stone masons, like their father, founding Wilks Masonry in 1995.In 2002 they went into fracking, launching Frac Tech and growing it into an oil and natural gas giant before cashing out less than a decade later.The brothers are also investing in oil and gas businesses, including Canadian oilfield services company Trican Well Service.