Kevin O'Leary sued for defamation over China claims related to Utah data center

Investor Kevin O'Leary, known from the reality show "Shark Tank", is being sued for defamation following his public accusations that Chinese agents were behind opposition to his planned data center project in Utah. O'Leary, along with Fox News, faces the lawsuit from organizations and individuals he identified as being connected to his critics.

O'Leary announced plans for "Wonder Valley," described as the world's largest data center, to be built on 40,000 acres in rural Box Elder County, Utah, with a dedicated 9-gigawatt power plant. During a Fox Business appearance, O'Leary claimed that opposition to the project was orchestrated by Chinese adversaries seeking to hinder US technological development.

"Who would want us to stop building our electrical grid? Who would want to stop us from having compute capacity to develop AI? Which adversary would want that? There's only one: It's China," O'Leary stated, brandishing a list of individuals he believed were connected to critics of his project.

Following backlash and subsequent retractions from both O'Leary and Fox News Media, where they acknowledged lacking evidence for the claims, the Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, and four individuals filed the defamation suit. O'Leary and Fox News have moved to have the suit dismissed. The original project faced scrutiny from local residents and officials who reported being informed of the proposal shortly before key approval votes.