"I think that's weird" - Kyrie Irving claims that Bill Gates owns the majority of the land and water in the United States originally appeared on Basketball Network .
Dallas Mavericks All-Star guard Kyrie Irving has been a very busy man hosting Twitch streams as of late. Ever since he got hurt, Irving has used the platform to speak out about his thoughts on various topics and issues.
In recent weeks, Irving has made interesting comments about his tenure in Brooklyn, his relationship with Kevin Durant and James Harden, the disrespect for Kobe Bryant in the rankings and Stephen A. Smith not deserving of his $100 million contract from ESPN.
Most recently, he revealed that Luka Doncic once dropped 24 points in 3 minutes versus Grant Williams in practice.
Now, in a complete 180, Irving is claiming that Microsoft founder Bill Gates owns most of the land and water in the United States.
"I still think that it's weird that the Gates family, Bill Gates, owns a lot of the land in North Dakota. I think that's weird. He owns majority of the water in the United States, I think that's weird. Whatever. To each his own. This is for information purpose only. But at the same time, when you go to the grocery store and you see some products that are on there that they spray with a bunch of sh–," said Irving.
It's unclear what the complete context of Irving's statement was because that 30-second clip is the only one that's going around the internet. But as to his claim that Gates owns a lot of land in North Dakota, that is true because in 2022, Potato grower Campbell farms of North Dakota sold 2,100 acres of farmland for $13.5 million to a company called Red River Trust, which has ties to Gates.
The deal became a subject of controversy, but Gates' company secured legal approval .
As of July 2024, Gates was considered the largest private owner of farmland in the United States with 275,000 acres of property across more than a dozen states in the United States, not just in North Dakota. These land properties are used for growing agricultural products like potatoes, carrots, soybeans, and corn.
Meanwhile, author Seamus Bruner provided the likely explanation for why Kyrie said that Bill also owns most of the water in the U.S.
"When Gates buys tens of thousands of acres, he is not just buying the land — he is also buying the rights to water below ground. In addition to farms (and the irrigation) and fertilizer, Gates has been hunting for sizable interests in water and water treatment — a crucial component when seeking to control the agricultural industry," Bruner noted in 2023.
However, while Gates is the largest private farmland owner in the country, his percentage of ownership of the total farmland in the United States is a mere 0.03 percent of the total 876.5 acres as of 2024. Three years ago, Gates also explained why he has been amassing farmland recently.
"I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the U.S. I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. There isn't some grand scheme involved — in fact, all these decisions are made by a professional investment team," he said .
To be clear, Irving said he only mentioned what he said for informative purposes. But if he was trying to insinuate anything by saying it's weird, all of Gates' transactions are legal, unless you want to come up with a conspiracy theory.
But Kyrie left it at that, so let us, too.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 29, 2025, where it first appeared.
