The Trump administration and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary claimed anti-data heart sentiments throughout the US are being fueled by a Chinese language propaganda marketing campaign.
O’Leary — whose 40,000-acre information heart plans outdoors Salt Lake Metropolis have been met with protests — claimed in a Monday video that “nefarious accounts in another country” tied to China have been spreading misinformation about his mission as a part of a coordinated assault on American AI infrastructure.
Inside Secretary Doug Burgum agreed throughout a Tuesday look on Fox Enterprise.
“Anyplace that’s attempting to construct information facilities is getting bombarded with foreign-directed propaganda to attempt to block these from being constructed,” Burgum mentioned. “That is simply one other assault on the US and our potential to be aggressive.”
O’Leary backed his claims with “90 pages of proof” which he mentioned indicated “tens of millions, tons of of tens of millions of {dollars}” price of funds have been being funneled from entities world wide to gas focused misinformation campaigns towards his information heart.
And he isn’t the one one to reach at such conclusions — not less than three stories from tech and Trump-aligned thinktanks and non-profits, together with the Bitcoin Coverage Institute, Energy the Future and the American Power Institute, drew related conclusions about Chinese language meddling in US data-center sentiments in research of their very own.
“The opposition to US information heart development shouldn’t be a spontaneous grassroots motion,” a latest American Power Institute report learn. “It’s a coordinated marketing campaign financed in substantial half by international donors, working by way of a community of nationwide advocacy organizations and their native chapters.”
However not less than two of the teams named in these stories informed the Washington Submit they’d nothing to do with a international affect marketing campaign towards information facilities — and that they have been baffled by the allegations.
“These stories are false, deceptive and an try by large crypto particular pursuits to control the general public into accepting information facilities,” mentioned spokesperson for the Wyss Basis, an environmental conservation and Democratic occasion non-profit.
The anti-war group Code Pink, additionally named within the stories, known as the claims “false and defamatory” — whereas a spokesperson for Alliance for a Higher Utah, who O’Leary talked about in his claims, known as the Chinese language allegations “laughable.”
O’Leary’s information heart has been met with the type of backlash many have confronted as they’ve begun to crop up throughout the nation to fulfill the rising computing wants of AI techniques.
Many locals have decried having the large amenities — warehouses stuffed with pc servers, typically masking tons of or hundreds of acres — dropped of their communities, whereas others have raised fears about water and energy prices going up, together with actual property being devalued.
Some have additionally raised issues about how such amenities might have an effect on the well being of surrounding communities.
About 70% of Individuals oppose the developments, in keeping with a 2026 Gallup survey, with many fearing destructive societal results and job losses from AI proliferation.
However O’Leary has insisted his mission — known as the Stratos Challenge, in Field Elder, Utah — is taking each precaution to roll out responsibly, telling NBC Information Thursday that the mission can be developed in levels over 10 years to make sure native security issues have been met.
He additionally mentioned solely about 9,000 acres of the mission’s 40,000-acre plot can be used after that point, and that upwards of 6,000 jobs can be dropped at the realm — which he additionally mentioned was in no person’s yard, however in the midst of distant and arid pasturelands.
Some opponents nonetheless aren’t satisfied, nevertheless, and suppose O’Leary and the Trump administration’s claims of a Chinese language plot are a transparent signal of massive tech attempting to drag out the stops to get what it desires.
“That is like gaslighting 101,” mentioned activist and three-time Trump voter Kyle Schmidt, who organized opposition to an Arizona information heart regardless of his president’s robust help for the tech trade.
“They’re saying, ‘Belief me. It’s not what you suppose. It’s what I’m telling you,’” he added. “I might love to sit down down with Mr. Great and ask him, would you like certainly one of these in your yard?”
