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Stratos downsized after pressure
Kevin O’Leary agreed to scale back his proposed Stratos AI data center campus in Box Elder County, cutting the development from 40,000 acres to nearly in half after pressure from Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams.
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Business Insider said O’Leary pledged to remove 19,430 acres in and around the Locomotive Springs Waterfowl Management Area immediately to the south, leaving most of the remaining project area as open space.
The dispute had intensified after Adams sent a letter urging developers to reduce the project’s footprint by 75%, from 40,000 acres to 10,000 acres, citing concerns involving water use, environmental impacts, heat generation and transparency.
O’Leary had rejected that requested reduction as inconsistent with the original agreement, and his team said it was surprised by the request while reviewing the matter.
At full buildout, the Stratos project had been described as calling for as much as 9 gigawatts of electricity capacity, with plans for large-scale data center facilities and its own power generation infrastructure.
Letters, jobs, and conditions
In a letter to Adams, O’Leary said, "We will agree to remove 19,430 acres in and around the Locomotive Springs Waterfowl Management Area immediately to the south," and Paul Palandjian said the company had "effectively agreed to everything we were asked to do" on the project area and land use.
Business Insider reported Palandjian said the company’s job estimates for the power-generation and data-center portion remain unchanged despite the revised footprint, with an expectation of 4,500 construction jobs over the life of the project and 2,500 permanent operations jobs.
Adams said in response that O’Leary agreed to the conditions outlined in a demand letter Adams sent on Monday, and Adams wrote, "O'Leary's concessions in response to the demand letter I sent are a positive step forward," while also saying no approvals or permits have been applied for.
The Verge said O’Leary also cut another 620 acres in the northeast portion of the project near the highway and said he would "preserve a majority of the remaining acreage as open space."
NBC News reported O’Leary told the outlet he is "going to have to" slim down the development amid political pushback from state leadership.
Utah sets a higher bar
As the Stratos fight played out in Utah, Governor Spencer Cox issued an executive order establishing a framework for data center development that includes protections for water resources, air quality, utility rates, wildlife, and quality of life.
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The executive order set a "higher bar for data center development in Utah," and Cox said, "Utahns deserve to have confidence that water resources, air quality, utility rates, wildlife, and quality of life will be protected."
The Verge framed the downsizing as coming just days after Adams called on O’Leary to slash the size of Project Stratos by 75 percent to about 10,000 acres, while also asking for technology that minimizes water consumption and diverting excess water to the Great Salt Lake.
International Business Times reported Stratos had been approved earlier this year as a 40,000-acre development and that discussions between state officials and developers continued as scrutiny of large-scale AI infrastructure projects grew across the country.
Business Insider said the proposal still faces a lengthy review process, with Adams stating "no approvals or permits have been applied for, let alone issued," and that written commitments, permitting, and environmental review would be required before the project could move forward.
