Kevin O’Leary Got Sued Over Data Center Comments—Here’s the Simple Story

What Happened First: The Comments

In May, Kevin O’Leary—a star from the TV show Shark Tank—said that some fake, robot-written comments were flooding his social media. These comments disagreed with his plan to build a huge data center in Utah. He blamed people he said were connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is the group that runs China’s government.

Now those claims may have gotten him in trouble.

The Lawsuit: Who Is Suing Whom?

On Wednesday, two groups from Utah and the people who started them sued O’Leary and Fox News (a TV news channel where he made some of those comments). They say his claims about them being tied to the CCP hurt their reputation in a way that can’t be undone.

• The groups are: Alliance for a Better Utah and Elevate Strategies.
• The people suing are: Joshua Kanter (who started Alliance for a Better Utah) and Gabrielle Finlayson (a founder of Elevate Strategies).
• They filed the lawsuit in a Utah Federal District Court (a type of big, official court).

They say O’Leary’s words caused:

• Devastating harm to their reputation
• Big money losses
• Serious emotional stress
• Ongoing threats to their physical safety

They want:

• Money to make up for damages (decided later in court)
• Extra money meant to punish O’Leary and stop this from happening again

Important: The lawsuit says O’Leary and Fox News ran a “smear campaign”—that means a planned effort to make someone look bad with false info.

What O’Leary’s Side Says

O’Leary’s lawyer, Jeff Neiman, told Fortune magazine that the lawsuit is just a “cash grab”—meaning he thinks they are suing just to get money. He says the groups used O’Leary’s comments to raise funds for themselves.

Neiman also said:

• The lawsuit will let them look closely at how the groups operate
• They welcome this and want to find out the truth about the data center opposition

He said: “The plaintiffs have put their operations, funding, and coordination squarely at issue. We welcome that, and we look forward to discovery and uncovering the facts related to the misinformation campaign against the data center in Utah.”

O’Leary’s Comments Explained Simply

The lawsuit says O’Leary went on at least 10 TV or media appearances to link the two Utah groups to the CCP.

Here are two examples:

• On Mornings with Maria, he called the groups “cells” (like secret spy units) and said: “These two cells, it’s the CPP [sic] at work here. There’s no question about it.” (He meant CCP but misspelled it.)
• On The Tucker Carlson Show, he said the groups were “taking the content from the CPP [sic], repurposing it, and jamming it down the throats of people in Utah on my social media feed.”

He said similar things between May 11 and June 3.

Fox News was also sued because they:

• Kept inviting O’Leary on shows
• Let him say these things to millions of viewers without correcting him on air at the time

Fox News said they later corrected the record on every program and publicized it.

Did O’Leary Ever Take It Back?

O’Leary’s lawyer says Kevin clarified his remarks weeks ago and offered to talk to the groups, but they said no.

On June 25, O’Leary posted on Instagram:

“Recently I appeared on various news programs and would like to clarify that I have no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party.”

But the law firm for the plaintiffs (Platkin LLP) says:

• He only clarified after they sent him a legal threat
• Fox News apologized and reported his clarification only after his post
• These late fixes don’t undo the harm from the weeks of accusations

Did the Groups Really Fight the Project?

The Alliance for a Better Utah did join a lawsuit against MIDA (a state group that first approved the data center). But personally, Kanter and Finlayson:

• Played almost no role in organized opposition
• Finlayson appeared in just one video about the project
• Kanter made no public statements and no longer has a public job with the group (though he’s still on the board)

The plaintiffs say O’Leary blamed the wrong people.

O’Leary’s Data Center Plans

The big fight is about O’Leary’s Stratos Project:

• A data center (a building full of computers that power AI)
• Could support up to 9 gigawatts of AI computing (a huge amount of tech power)
• Planned for tens of thousands of acres in Box Elder County, Utah, near the Great Salt Lake

Why people opposed it:

• Worried about environment
• Worried about local water supply

At a May 4 meeting, people shouted “Shame!” and “Cowards!” before officials left and voted virtually to approve it.

After that:

• A top Utah politician who backed it lost reelection
• Two county officials who voted for it lost their primaries

O’Leary then made the project smaller:

1. Original size: 40,000 acres
2. New size: 20,000 acres
3. Only 10,000 acres for data centers and infrastructure

This is part of a bigger U.S. trend: many people don’t want huge data centers near them. A Gallup survey found 7 in 10 Americans oppose one nearby. But some places, like Loudoun County, Virginia, say data centers brought tax money and lowered property taxes.

Summary

Kevin O’Leary said Utah groups opposing his data center were linked to China’s government. Those groups and their founders sued him and Fox News for defamation, saying it hurt them badly. O’Leary later said he had no proof, but the plaintiffs say that was too late. The case is about free speech, blame, and a big tech project many locals didn’t want.

FAQ

1. What does “defamation” mean in kid terms?
It means saying false things about someone that hurt their name or life.

2. Why did O’Leary think China was involved?
He said robot-written comments against his data center looked like work tied to the Chinese Communist Party, but later said he had no evidence.

3. What is a data center?
It’s a big building with lots of computers that help run AI and the internet.

4. Did Fox News get in trouble too?
Yes, because they kept putting O’Leary on air and let him say the claims without fixing them at the time.

5. Is the data center being built anyway?
O’Leary made it smaller, and some officials who approved it lost their jobs, but the project is still moving forward in a reduced form.