Fox News has issued a series of on-air apologies after Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary made unfounded allegations linking critics of his vast AI data center project in Utah to the Chinese government.
The retraction was broadcast across four separate programs on Fox News and Fox Business over a four-day period, Mediaite reported. During a 45-second segment on The Big Weekend Show, host Johnny Joey Jones said O’Leary had corrected his initial comments regarding the Stratos Project data center development. O’Leary had appeared on Fox May 24 to discuss the ongoing furor over his Utah data center project.
“He made certain claims relating to the opponents of his project. Mr. O’Leary has now corrected the record,” Jones said, adding that the Shark Tank star had “no evidence” that his opponents to the project “are funded by China or the Chinese communist party.”
Jones added that the network similarly found no proof that the critics were operating under the direction of, or in coordination with, Chinese interests, concluding the segment with an apology from Fox News Media for the error.
O’Leary’s massive AI infrastructure project in rural Utah has become mired in controversy. While he has defended the development as a critical national defense asset, local lawmakers and conservationists have challenged the facility over its projected 9-gigawatt power demand and potential environmental impact on the Great Salt Lake.
The planned AI campus, nicknamed “Wonder Valley”, was originally envisioned as a 10,000-acre data center on 40,000 acres of unincorporated land near the shrinking Great Salt Lake.
As reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams demanded that O’Leary reduce the campus size by 75 percent while requiring stricter commitments regarding environmental impact, heat reduction and water conservation.
O’Leary’s team countered by offering a 50 percent reduction, removing roughly 20,000 acres from the total land footprint.
O’Leary defended his resistance to the full 75 percent cut, telling the Salt Lake Tribune that such a reduction was “like me selling you a house, and you get to live in the upstairs toilet.”
The recent issue began during a May 11 broadcast of Fox’s Mornings with Maria, when O’Leary pointed to foreign interference to explain the local opposition.
On that show, he questioned who would want to stop the expansion of the U.S. electrical grid and AI capacity, telling the audience that China was the only adversary with that motive.
Though the network issued a formal apology, O’Leary limited his response to a clarification on social media.
“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 in an X post Thursday.
The Independent has contacted O’Leary’s booking agent and Fox News for comment.
Aside from its physical footprint, the vast amount of resources that O’Leary’s facility would consume has brought criticism from environmental groups. The project is projected to require 9 gigawatts of power, an amount that exceeds the current energy usage of the entire state of Utah, according to The Guardian.
Environmental groups have warned that the high electricity demands and cooling requirements will cause even more damage to the area’s struggling environment.
Franque Bains, director of the Sierra Club’s Utah chapter, told The Guardian that approving a project of this magnitude during an ongoing water crisis was dangerous, stating that residents wanted the lake restored rather than stripped.
O’Leary has repeatedly defended the development by calling it a vital national security asset needed to keep the U.S. ahead of foreign adversaries in the tech race, and has said it will directly support American military defense. Yet even with those justifications, local opposition remains strong, and community groups are still using legal and political challenges to try and stop the project.
