Kevin O'Leary, the real estate investor and Shark Tank personality, is planning a 7.5-gigawatt data center on 10,000 acres of cattle-grazing land north of the Great Salt Lake. If built, the Stratos project would be the largest data center in the world, dwarfing existing AI infrastructure. The proposal has sparked significant concern among Utah residents.
O'Leary argues that hyperscalers like OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are driving a competitive race for AI dominance that makes such massive facilities economically necessary. "They're all going to be built like this because the economics are so brutal, you need scale," he says. The project reflects a broader trend toward giant data centers as AI demand explodes.
Local worries center on the facility's energy consumption and environmental footprint on the rural landscape. Critics fear the 10,000-acre footprint will disrupt the area's ecosystem and strain regional power grids. The site currently houses cattle grazing, adding to concerns about land use changes.
O'Leary insists the facility can be designed to be "beautiful," though details on design or mitigation plans remain scarce. The project faces an uncertain path amid regulatory hurdles and community pushback. Approval would set a precedent for mega-scale AI infrastructure in rural America.
Opponents question whether such a facility can coexist with agricultural and environmental priorities. The standoff highlights tensions between tech expansion and local stewardship.