The biggest thread to data center buildout.

A group of Utah residents and a nonprofit are suing officials over Kevin O’Leary’s planned Stratos Project, a massive AI data center campus in Box Elder County.

The original plan was enormous: around 40,000 acres. After public backlash, O’Leary reportedly agreed to shrink the project by 75% and make commitments around water, open space, wildlife protection, and agriculture.

But residents say the problem is bigger than the size of the project.

They argue that an unelected authority called MIDA was given too much power over land use, taxation, public health, zoning, and local decision-making, without enough democratic input from the people who actually live there.