Kevin O’Leary, a prominent figure on “Shark Tank,” and the Trump administration have suggested that anti-data center sentiments across the United States are being driven by a Chinese propaganda effort.
O’Leary, who faces protests against his proposed 40,000-acre data center near Salt Lake City, alleged in a video released on Monday that accounts linked to China are spreading false information about his project. He described this campaign as a strategic attempt to undermine American AI infrastructure.
Supporting this claim, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appeared on Fox Business on Tuesday, aligning with O’Leary’s perspective.
“Communities aiming to establish data centers are encountering an onslaught of propaganda directed from abroad, aimed at preventing their development,” Burgum stated. “This represents yet another assault on the United States and our competitive edge globally.”
O’Leary presented “90 pages of evidence” which he claimed showed substantial financial backing, amounting to “millions, hundreds of millions of dollars,” being channeled from international sources to orchestrate misinformation campaigns specifically targeting his data center project.
And he isn’t the only one to arrive at such conclusions — at least three reports from tech and Trump-aligned thinktanks and non-profits, including the Bitcoin Policy Institute, Power the Future and the American Energy Institute, drew similar conclusions about Chinese meddling in US data-center sentiments in studies of their own.
“The opposition to US data center construction is not a spontaneous grassroots movement,” a recent American Energy Institute report read. “It is a coordinated campaign financed in substantial part by foreign donors, operating through a network of national advocacy organizations and their local chapters.”
But at least two of the groups named in those reports told the Washington Post they had nothing to do with a foreign influence campaign against data centers — and that they were baffled by the allegations.
“These reports are false, misleading and an attempt by big crypto special interests to manipulate the public into accepting data centers,” said spokesperson for the Wyss Foundation, an environmental conservation and Democratic party non-profit.
The anti-war group Code Pink, also named in the reports, called the claims “false and defamatory” — while a spokesperson for Alliance for a Better Utah, who O’Leary mentioned in his claims, called the Chinese allegations “laughable.”
O’Leary’s data center has been met with the kind of backlash many have faced as they’ve begun to crop up across the country to meet the rising computing needs of AI systems.
Many locals have decried having the massive facilities — warehouses filled with computer servers, often covering hundreds or thousands of acres — dropped in their communities, while others have raised fears about water and power costs going up, along with real estate being devalued.
Some have also raised concerns about how such facilities could affect the health of surrounding communities.
About 70% of Americans oppose the developments, according to a 2026 Gallup survey, with many fearing negative societal effects and job losses from AI proliferation.
But O’Leary has insisted his project — called the Stratos Project, in Box Elder, Utah — is taking every precaution to roll out responsibly, telling NBC News Thursday that the project would be developed in stages over 10 years to ensure local safety concerns were met.
He also said only about 9,000 acres of the project’s 40,000-acre plot would be used after that time, and that upwards of 6,000 jobs would be brought to the area — which he also said was in nobody’s backyard, but in the middle of remote and arid pasturelands.
Some opponents still aren’t convinced, however, and think O’Leary and the Trump administration’s claims of a Chinese plot are a clear sign of big tech trying to pull out the stops to get what it wants.
“This is like gaslighting 101,” said activist and three-time Trump voter Kyle Schmidt, who organized opposition to an Arizona data center despite his president’s strong support for the tech industry.
“They are saying, ‘Trust me. It is not what you think. It is what I am telling you,’” he added. “I would love to sit down with Mr. Wonderful and ask him, do you want one of these in your backyard?”