The Verge’s Josh Dzieza investigated the Stratos data center project in Utah, shedding light on how local outrage reshaped state politics.
Key takeaways
The Verge's Josh Dzieza investigated Kevin O'Leary's plan to build a massive data center in Utah, known as Stratos or Wonder Valley, which was met with opposition from local residents.
- Kevin O'Leary planned a 40,000-acre data center in Utah, with 9 gigawatts of power, more than double the state's average power usage.
- The project, called Stratos or Wonder Valley, was met with opposition from local residents and created a political firestorm.
- A defamation lawsuit was filed against O'Leary after he referred to critics as Chinese spies on Fox News.
- The project was stopped due to local opposition, with O'Leary's comments on Fox News contributing to the backlash.
Summarised automatically by AI from the original article by The Verge. AI can make mistakes, so check the original for details.
Today I’m talking with Josh Dzieza, a longtime features writer here at The Verge, about Kevin O’Leary’s plans to build a massive data center in Utah.
The idea was to build the world’s biggest data center — a 40,000-acre AI campus with nine gigawatts of power, or more than double the average power usage of the entire state of Utah. The project is technically called Stratos, but it’s more prominently known as Wonder Valley, a reference to O’Leary’s nickname on Shark Tank.
Josh has spent months reporting on this project, and it’s fair to say Wonder Valley has completely upended Utah politics. What Josh found throughout the course of his reporting was that the way this data center came together — how it was planned, how it was announced and approved, and how local residents were kept in the dark — ultimately created a political firestorm so severe it stopped Stratos in its tracks.
