Box Elder County officials gave the green signal to Kevin O’Leary’s 9GW Stratos AI project in Utah on May 4, despite strong protests from hundreds of residents.
Summary
Kevin O’Leary’s Stratos development, a 40,000-acre AI-focused campus in Utah, secured county approval on May 4 even as locals voiced concerns about environmental impact, water consumption, and energy usage.
Once fully completed, the campus is expected to produce up to 9 gigawatts of power — more than double Utah’s present electricity consumption — using a dedicated natural gas pipeline on-site.
O’Leary positioned the project as part of America’s effort to compete with China, which he said added 400 gigawatts of AI-supporting power capacity over the past two years.
Commissioners in Utah’s Box Elder County unanimously approved the Stratos AI campus proposal backed by Kevin O’Leary Digital, the infrastructure division of O’Leary Ventures.
The decision sparked backlash from local residents, many of whom shouted “Shame!” after the vote and argued they were not given enough opportunity to express concerns before approval was granted.
Developed through Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority, the massive campus will cover over 40,000 acres and eventually scale to 9 gigawatts of power generation capacity.
The first phase is planned at roughly 3 gigawatts. Speaking to Fox Business, Kevin O’Leary stated the facility would rely entirely on a direct connection to the 680-mile Ruby Pipeline in northern Utah instead of tapping into the state’s main power grid.
China cited as key motivation
O’Leary openly framed the initiative as part of the growing AI race with China. Referring to China’s rapid infrastructure expansion, he said the country had added 400 gigawatts of power in the last two years, much of it dedicated to AI data centers, adding that the US must keep pace.
To attract the project, Utah’s MIDA reduced Stratos’s energy-use tax rate from 6% to 0.5% and agreed to return 80% of property tax revenues. Critics, however, warned the project could worsen water shortages around the shrinking Great Salt Lake and potentially impact local weather conditions.
O’Leary responded by saying the campus would implement closed-loop water recycling systems along with advanced air-liquid cooling technology. No major hyperscale client has been officially announced so far. The first phase is expected to be delivered in Q4 2026, while the entire project could take around a decade to complete in multiple stages.
