Inside our months-long investigation into Kevin O’Leary’s Utah data center debacle
TL;DR
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.
Nauti's Take
The practical lesson for AI teams is straightforward: data center capacity only counts when power access, permits, local acceptance, and timelines are documented. This account currently relies on one major source, so operators should independently verify the project status, financing, and grid connection before planning around its promised capacity.
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