{"id":251291,"date":"2026-06-01T20:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251291\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:11:05","slug":"artificial-intelligence-why-shark-tanks-kevin-oleary-wants-to-build-a-massive-data-center-in-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251291\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence: Why Shark Tank\u2019s Kevin O\u2019Leary wants to build a massive data center in Utah."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Shark Tank\u2019s Kevin O\u2019Leary wants to bring the world\u2019s largest A.I. campus to Utah. Over the past month, the Canadian American businessman has been planning out this megaproject alongside financiers, private landowners, military strategists, and state officials, on 40,000 acres of unincorporated land in Box Elder County, right next to the ever-dwindling Great Salt Lake<\/a>. The idea is to collaborate with the military to install a 30-building \u201chyperscale<\/a>\u201d cluster as a matter of national security\u2014i.e., to use a swath of undeveloped Western land to produce high-level American A.I. because, according to O\u2019Leary, \u201cthe country with the best AI is gonna win the wars<\/a>,\u201d and he does not want China to get there first. When constructed, the facility will be more than twice the size of Manhattan and bigger even than Bryce Canyon\u2019s 35,000 acres. For Utah, that means a space with dozens of data centers, a handful of research facilities, and, potentially, some worker housing. The builders are also adding sleek glass panels and internal office space to craft the \u201csexiest, coolest construction posting in America<\/a>,\u201d according to Paul Palandjian, the CEO of O\u2019Leary Digital.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a problem with these futuristic plans, however: A lot of people in Box Elder County don\u2019t want this. Community data center resistance is not a new trend in the U.S. But it\u2019s been potent enough for Box Elder County that, even in deep-red Utah, the people are likely to demand significant political overhaul.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people feel betrayed, and that\u2019s bipartisan,\u201d Stephen Otterstrom, a longtime Salt Lake City resident running to represent<\/a> District 21 in the Statehouse, told me. \u201cI have not encountered a single person who\u2019s said, \u2018Wow, this is going to be a great thing for us,\u2019 outside of public officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

To take it from Otterstrom\u2019s fellow Utahns, the betrayal is not just that the already data-center-dense state<\/a> is getting another one, but that they feel there was no opportunity for democratic deliberation. O\u2019Leary first began discussing his \u201cStratos Hyperscale Data Center\u201d with Gov. Spencer Cox back in January and announced the proposal<\/a> a month later. (Neither O\u2019Leary Digital nor Cox responded with comment when reached for this story.) However, Box Elder residents didn\u2019t learn about Stratos until late April, when the county commission held its first public hearing. It was a hasty process for everyone involved; the state\u2019s Military Installation Development Authority, a partner on Stratos, sought to get permits going right away, even though the commissioners complained<\/a> they hadn\u2019t adequate time to assess Stratos. Locals insisted upon<\/a> the need for more public awareness and discussion, leading the board to temporarily set aside<\/a> the data-center resolution\u2014before pressure from Cox, who claimed that Utah had an \u201cobligation\u201d to allow the data centers as part of the tech race against China, got the commissioners to take it up again. Thousands of Utahns submitted negative comments, and hundreds of Box Elder residents flooded the commission meeting<\/a> on May 4, shouting down the politicians as they left the room to continue the meeting virtually and unanimously rubber-stamp the A.I. partnership with MIDA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep an ear out on things, but like many Utahns, this data center came as a shock\u2014not that it was proposed, but that it was all but approved from every level,\u201d Larry D. Curtis, a lifelong Salt Lake City resident and former local journalist, told me. \u201cTo me, and to other people I\u2019ve talked to, it felt like it was done in the dark: backroom deals and assurances made with no transparency or government accountability.\u201d Their rage is so pitched that it has also attracted national attention, with Paramore singer Hayley Williams taking a moment<\/a> to call O\u2019Leary out at a recent concert in Salt Lake City. The resistance efforts haven\u2019t let up: A new grassroots organization called Box Elder Accountability Referendum filed for a process<\/a> to allow voters to overturn the commission\u2019s approval. (The county attorney rejected the referendum, but its organizers plan to appeal<\/a> the ruling.) Utahns have also deluged Cox with thousands of letters<\/a> in opposition, while regularly convening on the state Capitol with unflattering signs<\/a> featuring O\u2019Leary and Cox.<\/p>\n

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In fairness to the county commissioners, there wasn\u2019t much they could have done. The acres parceled out for Stratos all lie on private, unzoned property, and the landowners there had already granted their blessing. One of them told the Salt Lake Tribune<\/a> that \u201cit\u2019s going to bring a lot of good-paying jobs\u201d and that \u201cif we really need it to stay ahead of China, I am all for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can buy this property, build this data center, and I can do nothing to stop it,\u201d Box Elder County Commissioner Lee Perry told<\/a> area public radio station KUER. So after \u201clooking at all the options that I had available,\u201d Perry attempted to add in some deal sweeteners (higher tax revenue, thorough state-corporate coverage of the construction costs) so as to lessen the financial burden on Box Elder residents reasonably worried over the nightmares they\u2019ve heard from neighbors: higher utility costs<\/a>, further water shortages<\/a>, noise and air pollution<\/a>. (There\u2019s a reason Iron County, in the southern portion of the state, just approved a six-month moratorium<\/a> on new data centers.) That may not save Perry and his colleagues, said Curtis, who predicted that \u201cthey probably won\u2019t run again\u2014I think people fully expect those county commissioners will never be elected again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite such potential drawbacks, Stratos\u2019 pitch to the populace seems intuitive: The campus, also referred to as \u201cWonder Valley,\u201d will be built out in separate phases, each part estimated by the state<\/a> to bring in tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue, along with thousands of (mostly temporary) jobs<\/a> in construction, maintenance, and IT. Power needs would be met by an already-extant gas pipeline<\/a> and a new on-site solar farm<\/a>, while Stratos backers promise that some of the water taken to cool the hot-running, desert-sited servers would become part of a \u201cclosed-loop\u201d system that flushes out used water back into the Great Salt Lake. That line has also been pushed by Cox, the governor, who claimed\u2014at the very same press conference when he declared a state of emergency over Utah\u2019s drought conditions<\/a>\u2014that the newest \u201cdata center is going to use less water<\/a>\u201d than the Great Salt Lake\u2019s other stressors, such as agriculture and lawn care<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Utahns have their doubts. \u201cJust 2,000 permanent jobs<\/a> isn\u2019t much when you\u2019re considering the size of that facility,\u201d said Otterstrom. \u201cAlso, we\u2019re in a situation where the Great Salt Lake is drying out, and we haven\u2019t even begun to stop the decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtis agreed, pointing to the climate emergency indicated by the most recent dry season<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s never been a winter like this, where we had virtually no precipitation, very little snow, very little rain. We count on that snowpack from the mountains,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery Utahn is aware of our shrinking and dying Great Salt Lake and the role that plays in our economy, our climate, the lake effect, even for sending snow to ski resorts<\/a>.\u201d And on top of that: fishing, boating, mineral extraction, and protection from underground toxins that could blanket Utah\u2019s most heavily populated area and drive everyone away\u2014not just from Box Elder, but from the state altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur economic growth is in the Salt Lake Basin. If you look for high-paying jobs elsewhere within the state, there are not a lot of opportunities,\u201d said Otterstrom. \u201cIn the past, one thing I could\u2019ve agreed with Gov. Cox on was that we need to save the lake<\/a>. Now this puts into question whether there is any sincerity in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, in spite of O\u2019Leary\u2019s concerted efforts<\/a> to smear the protesters as \u201cproxies\u201d for the Chinese government<\/a>, and to dismiss opposing arguments as \u201cpoo-poo<\/a>,\u201d Utah politicians sound quite different right now. State Sen. Scott Sandall, who represents Box Elder County, went from unconditionally supporting<\/a> Stratos to endorsing a new legislative study<\/a> on data centers\u2019 potential wildlife harms. Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, shouted out by O\u2019Leary as an early supporter of Stratos, appeared to backpedal after local media reported that he owns land<\/a> near the planned data-center plot; he denied being briefed early on by O\u2019Leary, called for<\/a> a wholesale environmental review, and endorsed<\/a> the now-scrapped Box Elder Accountability Referendum.<\/p>\n

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Those doubling down, however, are subjecting themselves to public wrath. J&J Nursery, a facility owned by a state senator who helped approve the Stratos megaproject, is facing widespread calls for a boycott<\/a>. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican ex-representative now hoping to succeed Cox in the governor\u2019s mansion, is facing blowback for admitting to being part<\/a> of the consulting firm that brought Wonder Valley into Box Elder County. Senate President Stuart Adams, who chairs MIDA, is facing a slew of primary opponents<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s politically untouchable, but I actually think this makes him vulnerable. It\u2019s that much of a backlash,\u201d said Curtis, pointing out that Adams was also weakened by a political scandal last year, after he pushed for a law change that ended up benefiting a granddaughter of his who pleaded guilty to sexual battery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Notably, Spencer Cox has himself retracted some of his disparaging comments, admitting that \u201cpeople are right to push back<\/a>,\u201d committing to a thorough environmental-impact review<\/a>, even issuing an executive order Friday requiring a \u201chigher bar for data center development in Utah\u201d that includes consideration of utility rates and environmental impacts\u2014though it might be too little too late. \u201cGov. Cox, who once seemed like a reasonable moderate, has done everything state lawmakers have told him to. People can\u2019t stand politicians who stand for nothing,\u201d said Curtis, who added that he had been a lifelong Republican prior to the MAGA age. \u201c \u2018Vote them all out\u2019 has been in the mouths of Democrats and Republicans over the data center. In my lifetime, I\u2019ve rarely seen such a universal level of community response to any one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s Going to Be Bigger Than Manhattan and Drain a State of Its Resources. Residents Are Fighting to Kill It.
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That response is ongoing. Developers\u2019 recent applications for water rights tied to Stratos were immediately countered with formally filed objections<\/a> from everyday Utahns; two of these applications have already been withdrawn<\/a>. People are still gathering<\/a> at the Utah Capitol itself, and some groups are even planning a lawsuit against MIDA<\/a>. There is sustained popular resistance here, with the resultant political blowback we\u2019ve already seen in states like Virginia, Missouri<\/a>, and Michigan<\/a>. For Utahns, it\u2019s especially existential: An A.I. competition with China should not trump their natural wonders, quality of life, and ability to even stay in the Salt Lake Basin for the long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have public programs, such as our education system, that go woefully underfunded year after year, and it\u2019s not because there\u2019s a lack of resources. It\u2019s because there\u2019s a lack of allocation,\u201d said Otterstrom. \u201cMore often than not, those who have inexhaustible means, like the billionaires, they get what they want.\u201d Perhaps this data center battle, then, was just the tipping point for widely frustrated and fearful Utahns.<\/p>\n

Without realizing it, Kevin O\u2019Leary may have awakened a new political uprising in Utah\u2014one that could come back to bite the very lawmakers he partnered with for his latest moneymaking venture.<\/p>\n

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