BOX ELDER COUNTY — Canadian investor Kevin O'Leary announced he would reduce the planned footprint of the Stratos Project by half. The project was initially planned to cover 40,000 acres in Box Elder County. The reduction removes approximately 20,000 acres from the development.
Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, who chairs the Military Installation Development Authority, sent a letter to O'Leary requesting a 75 percent reduction in the project's acreage. The authority had previously fast-tracked the approval process for the project. The Box Elder County commission unanimously approved the project in early May.
O'Leary said, "The project will no longer be the largest data center in the world." He also cited incorrect assumptions in his letter to Adams regarding concerns about the project. O'Leary had previously claimed that groups opposing the project were backed by the Chinese Communist Party.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox issued an executive order requiring consideration of data centers' environmental impacts. The Stratos Project was initially planned to consume up to 9 gigawatts of electricity, which is more than double Utah's annual electricity usage. O'Leary said, "Adams did this for political reasons. He had to answer to all these people."
Robert Davies, a physics professor at Utah State University, calculated that a 9-gigawatt facility would require 5,000 to 7,000 acres. Davies stated the project's energy usage would be 20 times greater than that of hyperscale data centers. He also projected the project could raise local nighttime temperatures by up to 12 degrees. Davies said, "This would be one of the largest single site heat sources on the entire planet, and that includes volcanos." Davies said, "It is performative."