Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary has joined the AI data center boom with newly approved plans for a controversial massive project in Utah.
The Box Elder County Commission voted on Monday to move forward with a proposed 40,000-acre AI and cloud computing campus in a rural part of northern Utah near the Great Salt Lake. The site would span more than twice the size of Manhattan.
The project, backed by O’Leary Digital, the infrastructure arm of O’Leary Ventures, is expected to eventually produce and consume up to 9 gigawatts of power. That’s roughly double the amount of electricity the entire state of Utah currently consumes, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
The campus is expected to be built in phases and overseen by Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA). O’Leary proposed a similar project in Canada in 2024 and has referred to both developments as “Wonder Valley.”
Plans for the Utah site include a large-scale energy generation plant, a massive data center campus, and two additional sites that could potentially be used for manufacturing or other uses. A fact sheet posted on Box Elder County’s website says the project plans to generate all of its own power on-site and would have direct access to the Ruby Pipeline for natural gas.
“Today’s decision isn’t the end of the oversight process, but just the beginning,” Box Elder County Commissioner Tyler Vincent said in a press release Monday. “We appreciate all the residents who shared comments, questions and concerns with us as we took the necessary time to do a thoughtful evaluation of the project.”
Vincent was referring to the intense public backlash surrounding the proposal. Hundreds of people attended the county meeting, where videos posted online showed residents holding protest signs, yelling at commissioners, and chanting “shame, shame, shame.”
Kevin O'Leary's massive data center was approved by a county commission in Utah last night.
At 40,000 acres, it would be 2.5x the size of Manhattan.
The commission approved the proposal despite opposition from hundreds of locals. pic.twitter.com/1pF9JZD30w
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) May 5, 2026
At one point, the meeting became so heated that commissioners walked out and resumed the proceedings virtually, projecting the remainder of the meeting back into the room.
AI data center projects have increasingly faced opposition across the country over concerns about their environmental impact, including water usage and strain on local power grids.
County commissioners said they negotiated additional “guardrail provisions” tied to the project, including noise limits and agreements from developers allowing agricultural uses in and around the area.
For his part, O’Leary has claimed, without evidence, that much of the opposition to the project was “paid” and that the meeting was filled with “professional protestors.”
“We think that over 90% of the protestors are actually not people that live in Utah or Box Elder County. They’re being bussed in,” O’Leary said in a video posted on X.
He also claimed backlash on social media surrounding the project was AI-generated.
O’Leary Ventures did not immediately respond to a human-issued request for comment from Gizmodo.
Source: Gizmodo