By Danielle
“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary plans to build an enormous data center in Utah to defeat China and others in the AI race.
The multibillion-dollar ‘hyperscale’ project would be constructed on 40,000 acres in unincorporated Box Elder County, where every private landowner has agreed to the use of their land.
The project would also utilize an additional 1,200 acres that include a section of the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR), which is a Department of Defense site, and property owned by the Utah Trust Lands Administration.
“It shows the Chinese and the rest of the world we’re not messing around,” O’Leary said, according to Fox News.
“We’re going to get this done and move it forward and provide the computing power to our AI companies that defend the country,” he added.
“The board that oversees the state’s Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, approved a series of resolutions Friday to move the multibillion-dollar project forward, agreeing to move fast and charge far lower taxes than usual to help O’Leary ‘lure the hyperscalers’ to Utah,” The Salt Lake Tribune wrote.
At full scale, the data center would consume more energy than the entire state of Utah.
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MIDA projects must include military land. In addition to UTTR, all of Hill Air Force Base, its Falcon Hill research park, and 27 Utah National Guard properties across the state will be “associated,” Morris explained, which gives MIDA board members “flexibility” on how to use the funds they will receive from the development.
Including the state trust land allows the state to also receive a share of the revenues, he said.
MIDA can offer tax incentives to developers so as they build in a project area, they can claim decades-long rebates of the property taxes assessed on the increased value they’re creating. MIDA also can set special tax levies to raise funds and can issue bonds.
Box Elder County commissioners, who said at a Wednesday meeting that they had first heard of the proposal a few weeks ago, had been scheduled to give the project the last approval it needs at a meeting late Friday. But late Friday afternoon, that meeting was rescheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.