‘Think about the number of jobs’

• Kevin O’Leary says people have misunderstandings about what data centers are.

• O’Leary is building a data center in Utah despite community resistance.

• Data center development has become a serious problem for many American communities.

Many Americans don’t like it AI data centers Kevin O’Leary thinks this is because they don’t fully understand themselves.

O’Leary, a venture capitalist and “Shark Tank” investor who recently played an abusive businessman on “Marty Supreme,” said Americans have misconceptions about data centers and their environmental impact.

“This is about understanding people’s concerns but also thinking about the number of jobs,” O’Leary said in a post on X on Friday.

Addressing environmental concerns, O’Leary noted that he graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in environmental studies.

“When a group comes to me and says, ‘Look, I’m concerned about water, I’m concerned about weather, I’m concerned about wildlife,’ I totally understand that,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary clashed with residents of Utah’s Box Elder County over the new artificial intelligence data center he supported on a 40,000-acre campus.

County commissioners approved the project, which is also supported by Utah’s Military Installations Development Authority, on Monday despite opposition from the community. O’Leary argues, without providing any evidence, that the criticism is essentially came from “professional protesters” People who are “paid by someone.”

Residents’ biggest concern about the data center, called Project Stratos, is that it could strain the water supply. Data centers can use millions of gallons of water every day. Rising electricity bills, noise and decreased quality of life are also points of contention.

O’Leary said the public misunderstands the impact of data centers because they have been “poorly represented” in the past and the technology that powers them has “advanced significantly.” He said data centers don’t use as much water as they used to and may use a closed-loop system to prevent evaporation. Data centers can also rely on air-cooled turbines as an alternative to managing the temperature of computer arrays, he said.

The project will not divert water from the nearby Great Salt Lake, agriculture or homes, Box said in a fact sheet published by Elder County. He also says Stratos will not increase electricity prices or taxes.

But many residents aren’t so sure. The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday that an application to divert water from the Salt Wells Spring stream, located near the Great Salt Lake and long used for irrigation by a local farm, was canceled after nearly thousands of Utah residents filed complaints.

“At some point understanding the value of sustainability, water and air rights, indigenous rights and making sure that constituencies understand what you are doing will be more valuable than the equity you collect,” O’Leary told X.

Anjney MidhaA Stanford University adjunct professor who appeared on the “Access” podcast this week agrees. Listening to local communities and being transparent about data centers’ intentions and impacts is crucial to making them work, he said.

“In my view, if it can’t be read by the public that these data centers and the infrastructure required to unblock such pioneering technology advances is in their best interest, then it’s not going to work,” Midha said. he said.

In a follow-up post on X on Friday, O’Leary said his project would be “completely transparent.”

“We want this to be a shining example of how you do it,” he said.

Read the original article Business Content