"We pissed off a lot of people": Giant data center plan cut 50% amid protests

One of the world’s biggest data center projects was designed to be nearly three times the size of Manhattan, stretching across multiple Utah sites. But intense local backlash in Box Elder County has now pushed the developer to cut the project plans in half before construction starts.

Residents’ top concern was the Stratos data center project draining local waters, and they were willing to pay to protect them, most especially the vulnerable Great Salt Lake. Many locals paid a $15 fee to register comments to block the transfer of 1,900 acre-feet of water from a ranch to the hyperscale data center. Other concerns include electricity bills rising and potential risks to air quality, local wildlife, and land.

Venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary, chair of O’Leary Digital and Shark Tank investor, is behind the construction of the project. He told a local ABC affiliate that he regrets not working with state officials to be more transparent about the project from the beginning.

“We really screwed it up,” O’Leary said, while confirming that he “was not expecting this kind of intense blowback from the public.” He claimed that he and state officials anticipated that “people would be excited” about the major local investment and “made huge mistakes” by not involving the public more in discussions, based on that “assumption.”

“We pissed off a lot of people, and that’s not the way I do business,” O’Leary said. “That’s not.”

As Utahns moved to defend their resources and demanded more information, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, who is a Republican, sent a letter to O’Leary, asking him to cut the project’s scope by 75 percent.

At an AI gala in Washington, DC, O’Leary claimed that he had “no choice” but to agree, NBC News reported. Initially, he planned to build the project on 40,000 acres, but now he’s reduced that to about 20,000 acres. Of the remaining land, 10,000 acres will remain undeveloped, leaving about 25 percent of the initial acreage to develop the data center. O’Leary’s group characterized this as bending to the Senate president’s demands.