08/19/2026
Politicians beware. Voters don't want data centers and they will let you know.
Three Utah politicians backed Kevin O’Leary’s massive data center – so voters threw them out.
The Shark Tank Investor’s proposed Stratos project in rural Box Elder County, Utah, was originally envisioned as a roughly 40,000-acre development capable of consuming up to 9 gigawatts of power at full buildout.
That is more than twice Utah’s current peak electricity demand. The original plan called for much of that power to be generated on-site, potentially using natural gas from the Ruby Pipeline rather than drawing everything from the public grid.
The sheer scale quickly turned the project into one of Utah’s most contentious political issues.
Residents packed public meetings and raised concerns about water, energy use, heat, wildlife and the speed with which such an enormous development was moving through the approval process.
Then voters responded.
Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, one of the state’s most powerful politicians and a major supporter of the project, lost his Republican primary in June.
Two Box Elder County commissioners, Lee Perry and Boyd Bingham, also lost after voting to advance the project.
Perry later said directly that he believed his data center vote cost him the election.
The backlash has already forced major changes.
O’Leary agreed to reduce the proposed footprint from roughly 40,000 acres to around 20,000, while Utah officials pushed for the first phase to be limited to about 1 gigawatt as the environmental impacts are studied.
O’Leary has also acknowledged that his team mishandled communication with the public, saying they “really screwed this up.” He has promised more transparency about water consumption, heat, noise and energy production before moving forward.
But he has not abandoned the project.
Learn more:
"Kevin O'Leary's colossal Utah data center hits a wall." The Street
