O’Leary walks back accusations that data center opponents are funded by China

SALT LAKE CITY — The lead developer of the controversial Stratos Project data center planned for Box Elder County walked back comments he made claiming opponents of the facility were funded by China.

As backlash grew over the data center project, which was originally planned for 40,000 acres, reality television personality Kevin O’Leary accused two Utah groups of having connections to the Chinese government.

During an appearance last month on Fox News, O’Leary specifically targeted Alliance for a Better Utah and Elevate Strategies, despite sharing no evidence that tied the groups, or anyone else, to China.

“Who would want us to stop building our electrical grid? Who would want to stop us from having compute capacity to develop AI? Which adversary would want that? There’s only one. It’s China.” O’Leary said.

But in a social media post Friday, O’Leary pulled back his unsubstantiated claims, while stopping short of apologizing.

“Recently I appeared on various news programs and would like to clarify that I have no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party,” O’Leary wrote.

O’Leary talks new poll, paying for Box Elder County data center:

In new interview, O’Leary talks that poll and paying for Box Elder County data center

As polling shows the public overwhelmingly opposes the data center, the political support O’Leary had previously enjoyed has also eroded. Several incumbents, including Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, who approved of the project, lost to challengers in primary elections earlier this week.