AI data centers got the “Weekend Update” treatment on “Saturday Night Live” this week.
Comedian James Austin Johnson portrayed “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary on the sketch comedy show, during which he addressed the dispute over the real O’Leary’s proposed data center in Utah, known as the Stratos Project.
“It’s very simple. All I want is to buy up 40,000 acres of God’s untouched splendor and replace it with a very loud computer that steals your job,” Johnson’s O’Leary said. “Is it going to take up precious water? Absolutely. Is it going to provide a necessary service? Who’s to say? But on the flip side, it’s going to make me a tremendous amount of money, and I think that’s great.”
The “SNL” version of O’Leary said he understood that some Americans were concerned about data centers near their homes. (An actual May Gallup poll found that over half of American surveyors opposed constructing AI data centers in their local area.)
“These things are terrible and shouldn’t be anywhere. That’s why I’m building one in Utah,” he said.
Data centers are a contentious issue in the United States.
Leading tech companies rely on AI data centers to power their systems and products. Supporters say they’ll create new jobs, bolster the economy, and help the US defeat China in the race to control the global AI market.
Residents in the places where they are being built, however, are often much less excited about them.
The Utah project, backed by O’Leary Digital, has drawn criticism from many local residents over concerns that the data center could strain local resources and worsen the environment. Some residents are also upset over what they consider a lack of transparency from O’Leary and local leaders. Critics of the Stratos Project have staged protests, created petitions, and taken legal action to stop its construction.
O’Leary scaled back the data center’s size from about 40,000 to just over 20,000 acres after public pushback. He has said he remains undeterred, though.
“There are bumps in the road. There’s litigation. There’s misinformation. There’s propaganda. You name it. But if you know what you’re doing is right, you make it, you get there,” O’Leary told Business Insider in June. “Persevere.”
During a May interview on Fox News, O’Leary said said some critics of the project have ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a claim he later walked back. A Utah advocacy group that has publicly opposed the project filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News and O’Leary in July.
On “Saturday Night Live,” Johnson’s O’Leary acknowledged the incident.
“I made the mildly inflammatory claim that every single person in Utah who opposes me is a paid communist super agent from China. Was I wrong? Perhaps. But just because they’re not, doesn’t mean they aren’t,” he said.
He added, “I’m going to make the future go away. And we’re doing just that in Utah.”
