Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary acceded to demands Thursday and cut the footprint for his proposed 40,000-acre data center complex in northern Utah in half.
O’Leary’s announcement is the latest development in a fight playing out between Utah politicians and the Canadian businessman. O’Leary says his “Stratos” project will produce its own electricity and divert excess water to replenish the dwindling Great Salt Lake. Yet protesters and elected officials, who allege that the project will strain local resources and burden the environment, have pushed back against it.
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Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams sent O’Leary a letter on June 1 demanding that the project be scaled back 75% to approximately 10,000 acres. Adams also called for greater environmental commitments before it could move forward.
O’Leary countered in a Thursday letter to Adams that he would eliminate two parcels of land from the project, bringing its scope to roughly 20,000 acres. O’Leary also committed to entering into a memorandum of understanding with the Utah Department of Natural Resources to protect wildlife, agriculture, and open space.
“Much of the alarm surrounding this project has been based on incorrect assumptions and facts about land use, water use, heat dispersion, air quality, and project timeline that does not reflect reality,” O’Leary wrote. “O’Leary Digital has not broken ground, has not received permits, and the development plan is still being engineered and refined.”
Adams hailed O’Leary’s letter as a “positive step forward” in the debate.
O’Leary, who is developing a similar project in Alberta, Canada, appeared miffed in a May appearance on NBC News. “Forget about the data centers built 20 years ago in Virginia,” O’Leary said. “They are old and they’re noisy. We don’t use any of that technology anymore.”
Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT), who previously met with O’Leary, criticized the project’s detractors in a news conference last month. “This whole idea of being rushed — I’m so tired of our country taking years to get stuff done,” he said. “It’s the dumbest thing ever. We think that taking time makes things better or safer. It absolutely does not.”
Data centers and the artificial intelligence tools they power are increasingly becoming radioactive issues in U.S. politics.
NEW YORK ON TRACK TO PASS YEARLONG DATA CENTER BAN DESPITE HOCHUL OPPOSITION
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) received backlash after she appeared alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk to break ground on a 2.2 million-square-foot project south of Ann Arbor on Tuesday.
A May Gallup poll found that 7 in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers for AI near their homes.
