Fox News apologizes for airing Kevin O'Leary's claim that his Utah data center opponents are Chinese government proxies
Fox News apologized after Kevin O'Leary claimed on air that opponents of his Utah data center were working with the Chinese government, a claim he later recanted. O'Leary's "Stratos Project" data center in Utah faces fierce local opposition over concerns about water and electricity, leading him to cut the project's size in half due to backlash.
Fox News issued an on-air apology after 'Shark Tank' investor Kevin O'Leary claimed during an appearance in May that opponents of his Utah data center project were proxies for the Chinese government. O'Leary later clarified that he had "no evidence" to support these claims, prompting several Fox News and Fox Business hosts, including Maria Bartiromo and Johnny Joey Jones, to read out apologies and corrections.
O'Leary's "Stratos Project" data center campus in Utah has become a significant point of contention, facing fierce local opposition. Community groups like the Alliance for a Better Utah and individuals such as political strategists Gabi Finlayson and Jackie Morgan of Elevate Strategies, along with organizer Taylor Knuth, were specifically named by O'Leary on air as being involved with China. They vehemently denied these "crazy and outlandish" accusations.
The widespread backlash from locals and politicians regarding the 40,000-acre site, driven by concerns over its impact on local water and electricity supplies, led O'Leary to agree to reduce the project's size by half. Despite this concession, O'Leary remains a vocal proponent of data center expansion, arguing in a June interview that such infrastructure is crucial for the U.S. to maintain its technological and economic competitiveness.