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What the Box Elder County Data Center Could Mean for Utah

Hugo Rikard-Bell
/
KUER

This week, Box Elder County commissioners gave the green light to a 40,000-acre data center in remote Hansel Valley, Utah. Matteo Wong, a staff writer for The Atlantic, says the immense scale of the planned development is hard to wrap your mind around.

Dubbed the Stratos Project, the data farm is the brainchild of Kevin O’Leary, a Canadian businessman and former “Shark Tank” star, who says the facility will rely on the “best technology.” When brought fully online, it's projected to generate and use nearly double the amount of power already consumed by the entire state of Utah. Matteo Wong has reported on other projects like this, but really, he says, what's being planned for Box Elder County is without precedent across America. Wong joins us to talk about about what happens when big data centers come to rural country.

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Podcast date: May 7, 2026

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