Kevin O’Leary’s Wild Spy Theory Mocked by Data Center Opponents
Two Utah-based activists sharply mocked Canadian billionaire and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary after he accused them of being paid Chinese operatives spreading misinformation about his proposed $100 billion data center project.
Huffpost reported that O’Leary appeared on Fox News last week to defend his massive Stratos data center planned for Box Elder County, Utah. He claimed Elevate Strategies, a Democratic political group opposing the project on social media, was being funded by China to undermine his investment.
Who would want us to stop building our electrical grid? Who would wanna stop us from having compute capacity to develop AI? Which adversary would want that? There’s only one. It’s China. We noticed an immediate spike in misinformation on two platforms, Instagram and X, formerly… pic.twitter.com/2vpNRP0zQ3
— Kevin O’Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) May 11, 2026
“If we were Chinese operatives, we would be the worst operatives in the entire world,” Gabi Finlayson, co-founder of Elevate Strategies, responded in a viral video Monday. “Someone alert Beijing that the payment portal to my Amex bills is somehow broken.”
O’Leary said he noticed a massive spike in misinformation on platforms like Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) and claimed his team traced IP addresses linked to Elevate Strategies, rallying opposition against the data center. He speculated the group might be “proxies for the Chinese government” but invited them to audit their finances to prove otherwise.
Finlayson and fellow co-founder Jackie Morgan dismissed the accusations as absurd and humorous, pointing out O’Leary’s casual attire during the Fox News segment and questioning his understanding of business realities. They emphasized their work is funded by small-dollar donors, not foreign governments.