Backlash Grows Over TV Star’s Data Center

Kevin O’Leary of ‘Shark Tank’ criticizes detractors as tools of Beijing

BY WILL PARKER

BOX ELDER COUNTY, Utah—Kevin O’Leary is trying to build one of America’s largest data centers. That is, he said, if he can stop the Chinese government from interfering.

O’Leary aims to develop a natural-gas and data-center project covering thousands of acres in the Hansel Valley. For weeks, he has encountered furious pushback from people across the state, largely over the potential impact on the Great Salt Lake, which has been receding for years.

The entrepreneur-turned-TV personality said there is more to some of his local opponents than meets the eye. They are part of a propaganda campaign waged and funded by China to stymie U.S. progress in the race for AI global dominance, he asserts.

He has made his case during regular appearances on cable-news shows and through social-media accounts.

O’Leary has provided scant evidence of Chinese government involvement, and some said his blame-China campaign is meant to discredit his opponents.

That hasn’t caused him to soft-pedal his accusations. “This is the CCP at work here,” he wrote on X, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. “There’s no question about it.”

Data-center development has sparked a nationwide backlash. Residents living near the sites of planned data centers fear they will sap their electrical power and boost utility bills. More than 90 local governments across the U.S. have enacted or are considering measures to limit their construction.

In response to mounting opposition, many data-center developers are keeping a low profile or taking a solicitous approach. Microsoft recently released its Community-First AI Infrastructure initiative, in which it pledges to cover electrical costs, replenish local water sources and pay its full share of local taxes.

A school district in Louisiana said some of its teachers would receive bonuses of more than $50,000 this year, thanks to increased tax revenue linked to a Meta Platforms data-center construction project.

O’Leary has said his project will return energy to the grid, create thousands of jobs, produce millions of dollars in tax revenue and won’t adversely affect the water supply.

He has spent a lot of time railing against the project’s detractors in a way rarely seen elsewhere. It is an onbrand approach for the man on “Shark Tank” known for his blunt and aggressive demeanor and called—ironically— Mr. Wonderful.

It isn’t yet clear if his allegations resonate broadly with the American public. He isn’t the only one raising the specter of a foreign adversary opposing data-center construction and slowing America’s pursuit of artificial intelligence.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, a group of Republicans this month wrote a letter to the

White House, asking the administration to brief Congress on investigations of foreign- influence campaigns in the U.S. related to the development of AI.

Still, one of O’Leary’s targets in Utah said the Chinese allegations are already backfiring.

“It’s really insulting to us,” said Caroline Gleich, an environmental activist in Park City, Utah, who has posted videos on the possible threat the d a ta - ce n te r project poses to plant and animal life and the Great Salt Lake. “The one thing he is succeeding at is uniting Utahns.”

After a request from the president of the Utah state Senate, O’Leary is already scaling back his initial plans. He will reduce the total size of his project to about 20,000 acres from the 40,000 acres he proposed in April.

Yet after that concession, it doesn’t appear that O’Leary will reduce the scope of the natural-gas plant and data center, which he has said could grow to as large as 9 gigawatts of power capacity.

A spokeswoman for O’Leary didn’t respond to requests for comment.

O’Leary, a former television producer and software publisher, co-founded a mutualfund investment firm and a venture-capital fund. He later branched out into other investments, including cryptocurrency and wine.

The 71-year-old Canadian rose to fame picking among startup ventures on the hit television show “Shark Tank.”

More recently, O’Leary turned his attention to data centers, which he has described as essential to U.S. national security. In 2024, he proposed a data-center and energy project in Alberta that is still in the preconstruction phase.

This year, he announced the project in Utah. O’Leary has yet to obtain financing or a hyperscale AI partner for the development.

A statewide poll found that 53% of Utahns oppose his data center, with 41% describing themselves as strongly opposed.

Not long after community opposition swelled, O’Leary said he hired an international research team to investigate social-media posts criticizing his data center. He said that he found several Utah organizations and individuals with funding tied to foreign entities, including China, and that he passed that information on to federal law enforcement.

Gleich, the environmental activist, once ran for U.S. Senate as a Democrat.

An opponent of the Utah project calls the allegations ‘insulting.’

Protesters opposing the data center in Box Elder County in front of the Utah State Capitol. NATALIE BEHRING/ GETTY IMAGES