{"id":1962591,"date":"2026-05-29T18:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1962591"},"modified":"2026-05-29T18:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:10:00","slug":"shark-tank-star-is-fighting-phantom-bots-while-utah-locals-fight-his-data-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1962591","title":{"rendered":"Shark Tank Star Is Fighting Phantom Bots While Utah Locals Fight His Data Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/kevin_oleary-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Kevin O\u2019Leary came to Utah with a pitch: He gets 40,000 acres of their land, and they get an ugly, energy-guzzling data center that creates minimal long-term jobs. Utahans said, \u201cI\u2019m out,\u201d but the Shark Tank star isn\u2019t taking no for an answer. Instead, he\u2019s claiming that it\u2019s actually the Chinese Communist Party behind the pushback against his data center project, despite a Washington Post report finding little to no evidence to back those claims.<\/p>\n

The data center, called the Stratos Project, is expected to consist of two separate 20,000-acre plots in the Hansel Valley and Locomotive Valley of Box Elder County, which will each host data center clusters. Per the project\u2019s website, the data centers will consume nine gigawatts of electricity, at maximum capacity, which it identifies as \u201cmore than twice what the entire state of Utah currently uses.\u201d That is somehow a selling point in the eyes of the Stratos Project. It\u2019ll also reportedly use 619 million gallons of water, according to a report from Deseret News.<\/p>\n

The developers also explain that the location was chosen so they can tap into the Ruby Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that runs through the region. It\u2019ll reportedly cost about $4 billion just for the first phase of buildout and could cost as much as $20 billion by completion, per Utah Money Watch. But all that is worth it, the pitch goes, because the project will help keep \u201cadvanced AI computing on American soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

That part of the pitch explains why O\u2019Leary, faced with pushback, has pulled the \u201cforeign interference\u201d card. In his mind, the only reason anyone would oppose this project is if they were on the take from China. Earlier this week, he claimed \u201cnefarious accounts out of the country\u201d were driving the backlash against his project. He also directly accused two anti-data center groups of being Chinese plants, claiming on an appearance on Fox News that his \u201cguys\u201d did a \u201cdeep dig into the IP addresses\u201d of accounts criticizing his project and found \u201ctwo cells inside of Utah.\u201d That\u2019s not really how IP addresses work, but sure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to know if there is any legitimacy to O\u2019Leary\u2019s botnet claims without seeing what he claims to have uncovered, but the Washington Post did tackle the veracity of some of his actually verifiable claims and found them to be pretty unconvincing.<\/p>\n

For instance, O\u2019Leary claims there is a slush fund of \u201cmillions, hundreds of millions of dollars\u201d from foreign adversaries flowing into the pockets of his Utah-based opposition. As proof, O\u2019Leary pointed to documents filed by the Alliance for a Better Utah. But, as the Washington Post points out, they do not show a massive, overseas money machine feeding cash into its coffers. The publication puts the amount of foreign-linked money in the tens of thousands.<\/p>\n

Instead, what it seems O\u2019Leary has found is that data centers just are not that popular. A poll commissioned by Deseret News found that 53% of the public either somewhat or strongly opposed the project, compared to just 30% who somewhat or strongly support it. When asked if the data center\u2019s claimed economic benefits outweigh the costs and environmental concerns, about 7 in 10 respondents said no.<\/p>\n

Good luck to Mr. Wonderful in convincing a majority of the state that they are tools of the Chinese government. That\u2019ll probably go over really well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Kevin O\u2019Leary came to Utah with a pitch: He gets 40,000 acres of their land, and they get an ugly, energy-guzzling data center that creates minimal long-term jobs. Utahans said, \u201cI\u2019m out,\u201d but the Shark Tank star isn\u2019t taking no for an answer. Instead, he\u2019s claiming that it\u2019s actually the Chinese Communist Party behind the pushback against his data center project, despite a Washington Post report finding little to no evidence to back those claims.<\/p>\n

The data center, called the Stratos Project, is expected to consist of two separate 20,000-acre plots in the Hansel Valley and Locomotive Valley of Box Elder County, which will each host data center clusters. Per the project\u2019s website, the data centers will consume nine gigawatts of electricity, at maximum capacity, which it identifies as \u201cmore than twice what the entire state of Utah currently uses.\u201d That is somehow a selling point in the eyes of the Stratos Project. It\u2019ll also reportedly use 619 million gallons of water, according to a report from Deseret News.<\/p>\n

The developers also explain that the location was chosen so they can tap into the Ruby Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that runs through the region. It\u2019ll reportedly cost about $4 billion just for the first phase of buildout and could cost as much as $20 billion by completion, per Utah Money Watch. But all that is worth it, the pitch goes, because the project will help keep \u201cadvanced AI computing on American soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

That part of the pitch explains why O\u2019Leary, faced with pushback, has pulled the \u201cforeign interference\u201d card. In his mind, the only reason anyone would oppose this project is if they were on the take from China. Earlier this week, he claimed \u201cnefarious accounts out of the country\u201d were driving the backlash against his project. He also directly accused two anti-data center groups of being Chinese plants, claiming on an appearance on Fox News that his \u201cguys\u201d did a \u201cdeep dig into the IP addresses\u201d of accounts criticizing his project and found \u201ctwo cells inside of Utah.\u201d That\u2019s not really how IP addresses work, but sure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to know if there is any legitimacy to O\u2019Leary\u2019s botnet claims without seeing what he claims to have uncovered, but the Washington Post did tackle the veracity of some of his actually verifiable claims and found them to be pretty unconvincing.<\/p>\n

For instance, O\u2019Leary claims there is a slush fund of \u201cmillions, hundreds of millions of dollars\u201d from foreign adversaries flowing into the pockets of his Utah-based opposition. As proof, O\u2019Leary pointed to documents filed by the Alliance for a Better Utah. But, as the Washington Post points out, they do not show a massive, overseas money machine feeding cash into its coffers. The publication puts the amount of foreign-linked money in the tens of thousands.<\/p>\n

Instead, what it seems O\u2019Leary has found is that data centers just are not that popular. A poll commissioned by Deseret News found that 53% of the public either somewhat or strongly opposed the project, compared to just 30% who somewhat or strongly support it. When asked if the data center\u2019s claimed economic benefits outweigh the costs and environmental concerns, about 7 in 10 respondents said no.<\/p>\n

Good luck to Mr. Wonderful in convincing a majority of the state that they are tools of the Chinese government. That\u2019ll probably go over really well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/shark-tank-star-is-fighting-phantom-bots-while-utah-locals-fight-his-data-center-2000765137″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/kevin_oleary-1200×675.jpg”] Kevin O\u2019Leary came to Utah with a pitch: He gets 40,000 acres of their land, and they get an ugly, energy-guzzling data center that creates minimal long-term jobs. Utahans said, \u201cI\u2019m out,\u201d but the Shark Tank star isn\u2019t taking no for an answer. Instead, he\u2019s claiming that it\u2019s actually the Chinese Communist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-1962591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1962591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1962591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1962591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1962591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}