You’ve been had. You’ve been took. You’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled, and led astray.
We are standing at a crossroads in Utah, and it isn’t a pretty sight. While you were sleeping, while you were working to put food on your table, a group of billionaires and their hand-picked political puppets were in a back room, carving up your land, your water, and your future. They call it progress. They call it “national security.” They call it the “Stratos Project.” But we know what it really is. It’s an extraction. It’s a raid. It’s a flat-out betrayal of the people of Utah.
They think they can ignore us. They think they can dismiss your anger as “AI-generated” or “paid for” by mysterious outside interests. But the fire we saw at the Box Elder County Fairgrounds wasn’t generated by an algorithm. It was the raw, righteous fury of people who are tired of being treated like data points by a billionaire from a TV show.
What is the Stratos AI center in Utah?
Let’s get the facts straight before they try to bury them in marketing fluff. The Stratos project is not just a “data center.” It is a 40,000-acre “hyperscale” AI data campus being dropped right into the heart of Hansel Valley [Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/kevin-o-leary-massive-utah-111956398.html%5D. To give you some perspective, that is roughly the size of 30,000 football fields dedicated to housing rows upon rows of thirsty, power-hungry servers.
This project isn’t being built by neighbors. It’s being spearheaded by Kevin O’Leary, the “Shark Tank” investor known as Mr. Wonderful, alongside a local development partner called WestGen [Source: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/05/kevin-oleary-says-protesters/%5D. They’ve partnered with the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA), a state-level agency that has the power to bypass your local zoning laws and hand out massive tax incentives to billionaires [Source: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/04/utah-data-center-final-vote-box/%5D.
The justification? They say it’s a “national security imperative” because the Air Force wants to keep up with China in the AI race [Source: https://www.abc4.com/news/northern-utah/box-elder-county-data-center-2/%5D. They use these big, patriotic words to stop you from asking the small, human questions. Questions like: Where is the water coming from? How much power are you taking from us? And why wasn’t I invited to the table?
The scale of this thing is staggering. At full build-out, this one single campus will consume 9 gigawatts of power. To put that in terms we can all understand, the entire state of Utah currently uses about 4 gigawatts [Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-oleary-blames-paid-activists-for-utah-data-center-protests-2026-5%5D. They want to build a machine that eats twice as much energy as every home, hospital, and business in this state combined.
The billion-dollar betrayal: How politicians ignored the people
If you want to see what political cowardice looks like, you only had to be in Tremonton on May 4, 2026. Hundreds of your neighbors traveled from across the state, from Cache to Davis to Salt Lake, to stand up and say “No” [Source: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/05/kevin-oleary-says-protesters/%5D. They carried signs that said “You can’t drink data” and “Save our water.” They came to be heard.
But the Box Elder County Commission wasn’t interested in hearing. They had already made their choice. As the room filled with the sounds of people demanding accountability, the three commissioners (Tyler Vincent, Lee Perry, and Boyd Bingham) didn’t stand their ground and explain themselves. Instead, they physically walked out of the room. They left the people they were elected to represent and retreated to a separate location to cast their “unanimous” vote virtually [Source: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/04/utah-data-center-final-vote-box/%5D.
That is not leadership. That is a strategic retreat from the truth. When the crowd chanted “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as those commissioners walked out, they weren’t just shouting at three men. They were shouting at a system that has forgotten its humanity. As we’ve said before at The Rooted Rite, this isn’t just about politics, we are losing our humanity. We are being sold out by people who have spent too much time looking at spreadsheets and not enough time looking their neighbors in the eye.
The Commission claims they “considered” the 2,500 public comments submitted online [Source: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/04/utah-data-center-final-vote-box/%5D. But when you vote unanimously for a project that thousands of people have begged you to stop, “considering” is just a polite word for “ignoring.” They prioritized the property rights of a billionaire developer over the collective rights of the community to survive and thrive.
“Paid activists” and “buses”: Unmasking the billionaire’s lies
When a billionaire can’t beat you with facts, he’ll try to beat you with insults. Kevin O’Leary didn’t take the protests in Utah as a sign that maybe, just maybe, his project has some flaws. Instead, he went on social media to claim that 90% of the protesters weren’t even from Utah [Source: https://x.com/kevinolearytv/status/2051667709574733826?s=20%5D. He claimed they were “bused in” and “paid by somebody.”
This is a classic tactic of the ruling class. They want to delegitimize your voice by making it seem artificial. O’Leary even went so far as to suggest that much of the online backlash was “AI-generated,” which is the height of irony coming from a man trying to build a massive AI factory [Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-oleary-blames-paid-activists-for-utah-data-center-protests-2026-5%5D.
Let’s set the record straight: the reporters on the ground didn’t see any buses [Source: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/05/kevin-oleary-says-protesters/%5D. They saw residents from Box Elder, Cache, and Utah counties. They saw families who are worried about their children’s future. They saw farmers who know that when the water runs out, no amount of “AI infrastructure” is going to make the crops grow.
O’Leary’s attempt to dismiss thousands of concerned citizens as “professional protesters” is an insult to every Utahn. It’s a shark trying to convince the minnows that their fear of being eaten is just a “paid” misunderstanding. We aren’t stupid, Mr. Wonderful. We know the difference between a neighbor and a developer who is looking for a tax-advantaged place to park his capital.
A drain on the desert: The environmental cost of AI
The most dangerous part of this project isn’t the billionaire’s ego; it’s the physical reality of what it takes to run these machines. We live in a desert. We are currently watching the Great Salt Lake vanish before our eyes, a slow-motion disaster that threatens the air we breathe and the ecosystem we rely on [Source: https://www.abc4.com/news/northern-utah/box-elder-county-data-center-2/%5D.
Into this crisis, the Stratos project wants to drop a massive straw. They are planning to acquire 3,000 acre-feet of water rights initially, with up to 10,000 acre-feet under contract [Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/kevin-o-leary-massive-utah-111956398.html%5D. That is enough water to support over 20,000 Utah households. They claim it’s a “closed-loop” system, but as we know from the wellness industry, corporate “green” claims often fall apart when you look at the receipts.
The sheer resource extraction required for this project is unlike anything we’ve seen in this state:
| Resource | Current Utah Usage (Approx) | Stratos Project Requirement | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | 4 Gigawatts | 9 Gigawatts | 225% of state usage |
| Water | Regional Scarcity | Thousands of Acre-Feet | Accelerated lake depletion |
| Land Use | Protected/Rural | 40,000 Acres | Industrialization of Hansel Valley |
[Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/kevin-o-leary-massive-utah-111956398.html%5D
They tell us they’ll generate their own power using natural gas from the Ruby Pipeline [Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-oleary-blames-paid-activists-for-utah-data-center-protests-2026-5%5D. But even that comes at a cost. Burning massive amounts of natural gas to power AI servers is not a “clean” solution. It’s just moving the pollution around. The physical infrastructure of the digital age is heavy, dirty, and incredibly thirsty. And right now, the people of Box Elder County are being asked to pay the bill with their natural inheritance.
From local power to corporate serfdom: Why we must fight back
This isn’t just a “protest against an AI center in Utah.” This is a fight for the soul of our communities. We are being asked to accept a future where our resources are extracted by people who don’t live here, to build technology that most of us won’t benefit from, all while our elected officials hide in back rooms to avoid our gaze.
We have to ask ourselves: What happened to the country that was supposed to be for the people? We have been sold a bill of goods. We’ve been told that if we just let the billionaires have their way, some of that wealth will “trickle down” to us. But we’ve seen how that story ends. The wealth stays at the top, and the consequences stay at the bottom. We are left with the dry wells and the polluted air, while they move on to the next “hyperscale” opportunity in another state.
Don’t let them bamboozle you with talk of “national security” or “economic competitiveness.” If a project is good for the people, it shouldn’t require a virtual vote in a locked room. If a developer respects the community, he shouldn’t call his neighbors “paid activists.” We need to stand up, speak out, and demand that our resources belong to us, not to the highest bidder.
Start standing up for Utah’s future today
The fight isn’t over. While the commission has cast its vote, the people are already striking back. Voters are filing a referendum to put this decision back where it belongs: in the hands of the citizens. There are boycotts brewing against the businesses owned by those who have facilitated this betrayal.
We are not “paid protesters.” We are parents, farmers, teachers, and neighbors. We are people who believe that a leaf, a root, and a clean glass of water are worth more than any algorithm. It’s time to root ourselves in the truth and rip the soil off this corporate grift before it’s too late.
If you care about the future of this state, if you care about the water your children will drink, then you need to be part of this movement. Don’t let the sharks win. Stand up for Box Elder. Stand up for Utah. Stand up for the rites that have been passed down to us for generations, rites that no data center can ever replace.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are people protesting against AI center in Utah locations like Box Elder County?
Residents are protesting because the project is expected to consume 9 gigawatts of power and thousands of acre-feet of water in a drought-stricken region, all while being approved through a process that many feel lacks transparency.
Is it true that those protesting against AI center in Utah are paid activists?
No evidence has been found to support the claim that protesters are paid. Reporters on the ground confirmed that attendees were local residents from multiple Utah counties concerned about their water and land.
How much water will be used by the group protesting against AI center in Utah claims?
The Stratos project is projected to use between 3,000 and 10,000 acre-feet of water, which is enough to support the indoor water needs of more than 20,000 Utah households.
Who is the main developer facing people protesting against AI center in Utah right now?
Kevin O’Leary, the ‘Shark Tank’ investor, is the lead developer behind the Stratos project, along with local partner WestGen and the oversight of MIDA.
What can I do if I want to join the movement protesting against AI center in Utah?
You can join the ongoing referendum efforts to put the decision to a public vote, attend future community meetings, and support local organizations fighting to protect the Great Salt Lake.
The Rooted Rite 
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