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Utah Residents Sue Over Kevin O’Leary AI Data Center Project

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#1448Chubby♨️
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Chubby♨️@kimmonismus#1448inAI

The biggest thread to data center buildout.

A group of Utah residents and a nonprofit are suing officials over Kevin O’Leary’s planned Stratos Project, a massive AI data center campus in Box Elder County.

The original plan was enormous: around 40,000 acres. After public backlash, O’Leary reportedly agreed to shrink the project by 75% and make commitments around water, open space, wildlife protection, and agriculture.

But residents say the problem is bigger than the size of the project.

They argue that an unelected authority called MIDA was given too much power over land use, taxation, public health, zoning, and local decision-making, without enough democratic input from the people who actually live there.

1:41 PM · Jun 6, 2026 · 5.2K Views
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Positive users support Utah residents suing over the Kevin O’Leary AI data center project while negative users criticize his choice as the project’s public face.

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Chubby♨️@kimmonismus

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/utah-residents-sue-officials-kevin-oleary-data-center-plan-rcna348720

Chubby♨️@kimmonismus

The biggest thread to data center buildout.

A group of Utah residents and a nonprofit are suing officials over Kevin O’Leary’s planned Stratos Project, a massive AI data center campus in Box Elder County.

The original plan was enormous: around 40,000 acres. After public backlash, O’Leary reportedly agreed to shrink the project by 75% and make commitments around water, open space, wildlife protection, and agriculture.

But residents say the problem is bigger than the size of the project.

They argue that an unelected authority called MIDA was given too much power over land use, taxation, public health, zoning, and local decision-making, without enough democratic input from the people who actually live there.

2hViews 3KLikes 6Bookmarks 1
Paweł J Lisowski@PawelJLisowski

@kimmonismus That’s wild, from quick look that county is pretty sparsely populated, if he cant build it there then where? Imo these data centers are matter of national importance so need governments to step in and carve in some exceptions.

2hViews 49Likes 1
orlie@sunglassesface

@kimmonismus Good for them, and good luck to them

2hViews 48
Alien@alienorg

@kimmonismus the data center fight is always about the same thing: who decides, and for whom

2hViews 42
AlphaMFPEFM@AlphaMFPEFM

@kimmonismus Maybe Elon is right about space datacenters...

2hViews 12Likes 1
stevefrenchfry@0V1knB

@kimmonismus It's underappreciated how bad of an idea it was for Kevin O’Leary to be the face of this.

2hViews 6
Vector@PrasVector

@kimmonismus Man, NIMBYs gonna NIMBY. I get wanting to protect your town, but we also need the infrastructure. Hope they find a middle ground before it turns into a bigger mess.

2hViews 6