Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates plans invest $80 million (£61m) to buy 40 square miles of land just 45 minutes west of Phoenix to build around 80,000 residential units and thousands of acres of commercial and industrial buildings and schools.

Set to be called Belmont, the futuristic city will devote roughly 3,800 of the 24,800 acres to office, commercial, and retail space, while 470 acres will be set aside for public schools.

“Belmont will create a forward-thinking community with a communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data centres, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models, autonomous vehicles and autonomous logistics hubs,” said Belmont Partners, one of Bill Gates’ investment firms.

“Comparable in square miles and projected population to Tempe, Arizona, Belmont will transform a raw, blank slate into a purpose-built edge city built around a flexible infrastructure model.”

Belmont Partners expects its development to feature all the trappings of a futuristic city: high-speed internet embedded in the built environment, accommodations for self-driving cars (such as traffic lights that communicate with one another to minimise congestion), and smarter manufacturing technology.

It isn’t yet known when construction will begin.