US farmers, tech tycoons square off over plans for utopian city

In this aerial photo traffic runs along Highway 113 in rural Solano County, California, with wind farms in the background. Silicon Valley billionaires and investors are behind a years-long, secretive land buying spree of more than 78 square miles (202 square kilometers) of farmland in Solano County with the goal of creating a new city. — AP

DENVERTON, United States: A stealth campaign by Silicon Valley elites with a dream of turning a swath of California farmland into a new age city has ranchers who live here challenging their tactics and their motives.

The project first surfaced when a mysterious buyer started snapping up parcels of land in this rural outback between San Francisco and Sacramento.