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O'Leary-Backed Data Center Firm Weighs Public Markets for Utah, Alberta Projects

June 18, 2026 at 08:29 EDT

Infra & Chips
Funding & M&A

O'Leary Digital, a data center company backed by Kevin O'Leary, the "Mr. Wonderful" of Shark Tank, is considering tapping the public markets to fund large projects planned in Utah and the Canadian province of Alberta. CEO and co-founder Paul Palandjian told Bloomberg the company is currently supported by six investors, including O'Leary, but faces the enormous capital needs that its ambitious plans demand.

June 18, 2026 · O'Leary Digital

$170B AI Data Center Vision Eyes the Public Markets

Kevin O'Leary-backed firm weighs an IPO to fund up to 15GW of hyperscale compute across Utah and Alberta — admitting its six investors alone can't carry the ambition.

~$170B

Combined estimated investment

15GW

Combined target scale across two sites

Existing investors — now seen as not enough

Two Mega-Projects to Scale

Gigawatts planned · 1GW ≈ output of a single nuclear reactor

9GW

Utah · Stratos

~$100B · 40,000 acres

7.5GW

Alberta · Wonder Valley

~$70B · 8.5GW gas plant

Proponents say

National security & AI competitiveness
10,000 construction / 2,000 permanent jobs
Higher tax revenue, closed-loop cooling
Defense use via MIDA cooperation (Utah)

Critics warn

Power use could exceed an entire state's
Water demand & carbon emissions
Impact on the Great Salt Lake
Lawsuits filed; Senate call to cut scale 75%

The bottom line

Still pre-development — permitting, funding, and scale all unresolved, with no operational track record.

Tapping the public markets reflects a recognition that the financial feasibility of this massive AI infrastructure bet is now the central question.

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