Kevin O'Leary halves Utah data center plan

Kevin O'Leary has agreed to halve the footprint of his proposed Project Stratos data center in Utah, removing 19,430 acres from the original 40,000-acre plan [The Verge]. In a letter to Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams, O'Leary said the revised site will be confined to the area around the Locomotive Springs Waterfowl Management Area, leaving roughly 20,570 acres for development [The Verge]. Adams had earlier urged O'Leary to cut the project by 75 percent, which would have limited it to about 10,000 acres, and to adopt water‑saving technology. O'Leary’s concession meets the acreage reduction request while also committing to install water‑conservation systems that lower consumption per megawatt of capacity.

The change trims land use by nearly 50 percent and introduces technology designed to curb water draw from the arid region. By preserving a larger portion of the waterfowl habitat and reducing the project's demand on local water supplies, the revised plan offers a tangible example of how large‑scale infrastructure can be reshaped in response to community and environmental concerns. Other data‑center operators, including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, have faced similar scrutiny, and O'Leary’s adjustment provides a concrete benchmark for balancing expansion with sustainability.

The revised proposal shows that sizable data‑center projects can be scaled back without abandoning performance goals, and it demonstrates that stakeholder pressure can produce measurable design changes.