Kevin O'Leary Says He's The Only Data Center Developer Who Studied Environment, Slams Backlash Against Utah Project: 'Kind Of Hypocritical'

Kevin O’Leary defended his proposed Stratos AI data center in Box Elder County, Utah, amid growing local and environmental backlash. The 40,000-acre development would scale to as much as 9 gigawatts of power — more than double Utah’s average annual consumption — raising concerns about fossil-fuel generation, water use and ecosystem strain. The piece situates O’Leary’s project within a broader AI infrastructure boom: major hyperscalers (Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and Meta) have sharply increased capex to more than $750 billion, while NIMBY opposition stalled roughly $156 billion of U.S. data center projects in 2025. Market impact centers on regulatory and permitting risks for large-scale data center builds, potential constraints on AI capacity growth, and implications for energy and industrial suppliers tied to the expansion.