Kevin O'Leary accuses Box Elder County data center opponents of being funded by China

Kevin O'Leary, a prominent investor backing the proposed 40,000-acre Stratos data center campus in Box Elder County, Utah, has publicly accused two local groups, Alliance for a Better Utah and Elevate Strategies, of receiving funding from the Chinese government. O'Leary, making his remarks on Fox News, linked the opposition to foreign adversaries aiming to hinder U.S. electrical grid development and AI compute capacity. This comes amid significant local resistance, including over 2,300 protest filings against the data center's water application. Gabi Finlayson of Elevate Strategies and Elizabeth Hutchings of Alliance for a Better Utah vehemently denied O'Leary's allegations, calling them baseless and absurd. Both stated their organizations are supported by grassroots donors and local Utah residents. Finlayson humorously challenged O'Leary, while Morgan, her colleague, highlighted the importance of scrutinizing the financial interests of those who stand to gain hundreds of millions from the project. O'Leary has doubled down on his demand for financial transparency from the opposition groups, vowing to employ forensic accountants to uncover their funding sources. He maintains that the data center is crucial for U.S. advancements in artificial intelligence against global competitors. Alliance for a Better Utah responded by posting a video on Facebook asking for donations, set to Chinese-sounding music, in a sarcastic jab at O'Leary's claims.