Kevin O’Leary, the brash investor known for his ‘Mr. Wonderful’ persona on ABC’s Shark Tank, is trying to turn a patch of Utah desert into one of the largest data centers in the world. His company, O’Shares Investments, wants to build a 40,000-acre ‘hyperscale’ facility in Box Elder County, about 80 miles northwest of Salt Lake City. That’s roughly 62 square miles—bigger than the entire city of Chicago. The plan calls for massive server farms, cooling systems, and backup power plants to keep the internet running 24/7. But the project is already running into fierce resistance from locals who say it’ll suck up too much water in a drought-prone region and wreck the landscape they call home.

The proposed site sits in the Great Salt Lake Basin, where water is scarce and precious. Utah has been in a drought for over two decades, and the state’s groundwater levels have dropped sharply in recent years. O’Leary’s team insists they’ll use minimal water, but residents aren’t buying it. ‘This isn’t just about a data center—it’s about our water,’ said one farmer who’s lived in the area for 30 years. ‘We can’t afford to lose any more.’ Environmental groups are also sounding alarms, warning that the project could harm wildlife habitats and disrupt farming in an already stressed region. Even the local Box Elder County Commission has raised concerns, though it hasn’t outright rejected the idea yet.

O’Leary first floated the idea in 2023, pitching it as an economic goldmine for Utah. He claimed the facility would create thousands of jobs and bring in millions in tax revenue. But the promises haven’t calmed the critics. ‘He’s treating our land like it’s a blank check,’ said a member of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, whose reservation borders the proposed site. ‘We’ve lived here for generations, and we’re not going to let some outsider come in and wreck it for profit.’ The Goshute Tribe has already filed objections, arguing that the project would violate their treaty rights and threaten sacred sites.

The data center’s energy problem

Hyperscale data centers like the one O’Leary wants to build are notorious energy hogs. They need constant power to keep servers cool and running, often relying on coal or natural gas plants. Utah gets about 70% of its electricity from fossil fuels, and environmentalists worry the center will lock in decades of dirty energy use. ‘We’re trading our clean air for corporate profits,’ said a local climate activist. ‘Utah’s already one of the fastest-warming states in the U.S. Do we really want to make it worse?’ O’Leary’s team hasn’t released detailed plans for the facility’s energy source, but they’ve hinted at a mix of renewables and traditional power. Critics say that’s not enough.

The project’s size alone is raising eyebrows. The 40,000-acre footprint is roughly the size of 30,000 football fields. To put it in perspective, the largest data center in the world, the China Mobile Cloud Computing Center, is about 10,000 acres. O’Leary’s plan dwarfs even that. Supporters argue that Utah’s cheap land and mild climate make it an ideal spot for data centers, which generate a lot of heat. But opponents say the trade-offs aren’t worth it. ‘We’re not anti-progress,’ said a local business owner. ‘But this feels like they’re trying to cram a square peg into a round hole.’

What happens next?

O’Leary’s team has been quietly meeting with state and local officials, but there’s no guarantee the project will get approved. Box Elder County will hold public hearings later this year, and the state’s water regulators will review the plan’s impact on groundwater. If the project moves forward, it could take a decade to build—and that’s if it survives legal challenges. For now, the fight is just heating up. ‘This isn’t over,’ said a local resident. ‘We’re not going down without a fight.’ The outcome could set a precedent for how Utah balances economic growth with environmental and community concerns in the years ahead.

What You Need to Know

  • Source: Rolling Stone
  • Published: May 17, 2026 at 16:21 UTC
  • Category: Entertainment
  • Topics: #music · #rolling-stone · #culture · #with · #utah-data-center · #tank

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Curated by GlobalBR News · May 17, 2026

🇧🇷 Resumo em Português

O empresário Kevin O’Leary, conhecido como “Mr. Wonderful” do programa Shark Tank, está prestes a deixar sua marca no cenário tecnológico global com um megaprojeto controverso: a construção de um data center de 160 km² no estado de Utah, nos Estados Unidos. A iniciativa, que promete ser uma das maiores do mundo, já acendeu o alerta de moradores e ativistas, que temem pela escassez hídrica e pelos impactos ambientais em uma região marcada pela aridez.

A polêmica gira em torno do uso intensivo de água em uma área onde os recursos hídricos já são disputados, especialmente em tempos de seca prolongada. Além disso, críticos questionam se os benefícios econômicos prometidos — como geração de empregos e crescimento local — compensarão os danos ao ecossistema e à qualidade de vida da população. No Brasil, onde a discussão sobre sustentabilidade e megaprojetos tecnológicos também ganha força, o caso serve como um alerta sobre os limites do desenvolvimento sem planejamento ambiental rigoroso. Especialistas brasileiros já começam a debater como o país poderia lidar com empreendimentos semelhantes, considerando suas próprias vulnerabilidades hídricas e energéticas.

Enquanto O’Leary e as autoridades de Utah tentam contornar as resistências, a batalha jurídica e social promete se estender, com possíveis reflexos em outras regiões do mundo que vislumbram na expansão dos data centers uma oportunidade de modernização — desde que, claro, os custos ambientais sejam devidamente avaliados.