Fox News Forced to Apologize After Kevin O'Leary Falsely Accused Data Center Opponents of CCP Funding

What Happened

In February 2026, Shark Tank star and MAGA figure Kevin O'Leary announced plans to build a data center campus in Utah spanning up to 40,000 acres. The project immediately drew opposition from residents and organizations including Alliance for a Better Utah.

O'Leary went on Fox News on May 24 and, rather than engage with the substance of residents' concerns, made a different claim: that the organizations opposing his project were funded by Chinese Communist Party dark-money interests. He repeated the claim across multiple networks.

There was no evidence for it. The claim was false.

The Correction

On Thursday, June 26, O'Leary posted a statement to X acknowledging the truth:

"I have no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth, or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party."
— Kevin O'Leary, statement on X

Fox News Media followed with a rare on-air apology, airing across four Fox News and Fox Business programs over four days. Big Weekend Show host Johnny Joey Jones read the statement on air:

"Kevin O'Leary appeared as a guest on the show on May 24 and discussed the ongoing controversy surrounding his planned data center project in Utah. He made certain claims relating to the opponents of his project. He has now corrected the record."

Media analyst Brian Stelter noted on X that Fox's unusual apology came "in response to legal threats from people who were attacked by Kevin O'Leary."

What This Reveals

The CCP smear is a playbook, not a fact. When community opposition to data center projects is organized, sustained, and effective, some developers and their media allies respond not by addressing the concerns — water use, land displacement, noise, energy strain — but by attacking the credibility of the people raising them.

Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, and the named individuals were simply residents and advocates opposing a 40,000-acre industrial development in their state. They had no Chinese funding. They had concerns. Calling that "CCP dark money" was defamatory, and it cost O'Leary and Fox News a public retraction.

O'Leary's project has already been forced to scale down from 40,000 to 20,000 acres — not because of any foreign interference, but because Utahns pushed back. The correction forced by legal pressure is one more sign that when communities organize and refuse to be intimidated, they have power — including the power to hold people accountable for lies told to discredit them.

The Broader Pattern

Across the country, data center opponents are being dismissed, marginalized, and in this case defamed. But the facts keep breaking their way. In Florida, 20+ counties have passed moratoria. In Texas, 56% of voters oppose data centers, including 44% of Republicans. In Utah, a TV celebrity with White House connections had to retract false accusations against the citizens who showed up to oppose him.

The people opposing these projects are not foreign agents. They are your neighbors.

Sources: The Daily Beast / Yahoo News — "Fox News Apologizes After Kevin O'Leary Made Claims That Were Untrue" by Wiktoria Gucia (June 28, 2026); Kevin O'Leary statement on X; Brian Stelter on X.