The People of Utah vs. Kevin O’Leary
Celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary is facing public backlash over a massive data center project in Utah and has publicly blamed Chinese agents for the criticism. O'Leary claims to have investigated IP addresses to link his online detractors to foreign interference.
Why it matters
The story highlights the intersection of large-scale infrastructure development, political paranoia, and the influence of foreign policy rhetoric on local business disputes.
On the morning of May 11th, the celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary appeared on Fox Business and announced that he was under attack by Chinese agents. For weeks, he had been going on TV and posting online to tout his project, called Wonder Valley, after his nickname from the reality show Shark Tank , Mr. Wonderful. It was going to be enormous, “the largest data center in the world,” sitting on 40,000 acres north of Great Salt Lake in rural Box Elder County, Utah. A dedicated gas power plant would tap into an interstate pipeline and generate 9 gigawatts of electricity, more than double the average consumption of the entire state.
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