Kevin O’Leary has agreed to scale back his plans for a data center in Utah following heated public push-back and an appeal from local politicians in the state, according to a report from ABC4 and a letter from Mr. Wonderful himself.
On Monday, Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams asked O’Leary to shrink the proposed data center project by 75%, cutting it from 40,000 acres to about 10,000.
Adams also asked that any excess water from O’Leary’s data center be treated and diverted to the Great Salt Lake. Claims online had suggested O’Leary’s data center would siphon water from the Great Salt Lake, something the Shark Tank star denied.
O’Leary wrote a letter dated June 4 addressed to Adams and agreed to the changes at the Box Elder County data center.
“On water, land, heat, environmental performance, and transparency, we are aligned with the standards you have set,” the letter reads. “We commit to industry-leading water-use technology and to dedicating any excess water from the project to the Great Salt Lake.
O’Leary’s letter went on to state that his company, O’Leary Digital, was prepared to enter into a memo of understanding with the Utah Department of Natural Resources “covering wildlife, agriculture, and open space.”
The letter is, oddly enough, filled with typos. “Much of the alarm surrounding this project has been based on incorrect assumpitons [sic] and facts about land use, water use, heat dispursion [sic], air quality, and project timeline that does not reflect reality,” the letter reads.
The typos suggest that at least O’Leary isn’t using AI to write his letters. But it does raise questions about who is proofreading his work.
Adams approved of O’Leary’s response, according to ABC4, writing, “O’Leary’s concessions in response to the demand letter I sent are a positive step forward. The concerns raised by Utahns are valid, which is why I have pushed for meaningful changes to ensure those issues are addressed before any project can move forward.”
Earlier this week, O’Leary was defiant and told the Salt Lake Tribune that calls to reduce the data center project’s size by 75% were “outrageous,” and he initially thought it was a typo.
O’Leary has made several unverified claims about public outrage over his data center, including the idea that the only people who oppose its construction are from out of town. But opposition to data center construction cuts across virtually all demographics and political persuasions.
Public polling by Gallup last month showed that just 27% of Americans support the construction of data centers in their area. In fact, more Americans would prefer to live near a nuclear power plant than an AI data center.
