The war on data centres is a bit fake

Business | Schumpeter

The war on data centres is a bit fake

Developers are exaggerating their plans, just as politicians are overstating their opposition

Collage of black-and-white data centre server racks partially obscured by multiple strips of yellow-and-black caution tape,

Illustration: Mari Fouz

Aug 19th 2026|5 min read

In February, shortly after making his feature-film debut as a pen magnate in “Marty Supreme”, Kevin O’Leary announced that he would build one of the world’s biggest data-centre projects in Utah. The market shrugged. What did Mr O’Leary, who is best known for presenting “Shark Tank”, know about data centres? How would it be paid for? Or powered? One analyst dismissed the project as an example of “vapourware gigawatts”.

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