Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank faced intense local opposition to his Utah data center project. The Wonder Valley project, originally planned on 40,000 acres in Box Elder County with 9 gigawatts of power capacity, was halved to 20,000 acres with approximately 1 gigawatt. Several of O’Leary’s political allies lost their primaries in June 2026, including Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and two county commissioners. O’Leary is now facing a defamation lawsuit filed in July 2026 by Joshua Kanter and Gabrielle Finlayson over his Fox Business claims accusing Chinese agents of being behind the opposition, which he later retracted. Utah’s governor responded with an executive order setting stricter rules for future data center projects.
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