DoomsdaysCW#KevinOLeary’s Massive #DataCenter Project in #Utah Gets the Greenlight, Locals Are Furious
The project would be more than twice the size of Manhattan and could consume more electricity than the entire state currently uses.
By Bruce Gil
Published May 6, 2026
"The Box Elder County Commission voted on Monday to move forward with a proposed 40,000-acre #AI and #CloudComputing campus in a rural part of northern Utah near the #GreatSaltLake. 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 '#WonderValley.' "
[...]
"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."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/Q9tF4
#OLearyDigital #OLearyVentures #SharkTank #Datacenters #AIDatacenters #LocalOpposition #NoisePollution #AISucks #MilitaryIndustrialComplex
