"All focused on AI's potential": Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary discusses how everyone needs to work on the energy issue related to building data centers

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary shared a video clip via Instagram on May 22, 2025. It was a clip from his recent interaction on Fox News, where he opens up about how everyone is focused on AI's potential. He talked about the energy requirements to build a data center, and how more people are not focused on that.

Kevin O'Leary mentioned that everyone needs to work on this energy issue; if not, competitors will get ahead in the AI race. The chairman of O'Leary Ventures also talked about how a single modern AI data center requires a full gigawatt of power, which is not easy to obtain from the local grid.

Sharing more about that, Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary captioned the video clip with:

"We're all focused on AI's potential, but not enough on the energy crisis holding it back. A single modern AI data center needs a full gigawatt of power. You can't just pull that from the local grid without sending electricity bills soaring. Cities won't allow it, and communities push back hard."

Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary shares his concerns about the energy required to build modern AI data centers

While talking with the news executive on Fox News, Kevin O'Leary was asked a question related to President Trump's "energy agenda." The executive mentioned how the President wants to drill existing wells and go ahead with fuel exploration. She also talked about the President's plan to "bring back" energy resources that have been "left for dead."

Responding to that, the Shark Tank investor stated that before doing all this, there's a lot of work that needs to be done to get all the mentioned things in place. The reason behind that was that there are a lot of "regulations" that need to be "repealed."

"For example, ANWR, which is also part of the gold mine you talked about, that could actually reduce some of the national debt, it's so huge. But he's right on in the sense that we have no power," said the Shark Tank mentor.

Further, he stated that to build a new AI data center, the required energy consumption was a gigawatt. To build that, stranded gas is also one of the requirements. Now, to obtain these things, there are many potential issues, including:

"Because if you go to any community, any municipality, any mayor, anywhere and say, I'm building a data center and I'm pulling a gig of power off the grid, everybody's electricity bill goes up as much as 15%. And nobody wants that, so they always vote it down. We're really stuck. The grid is empty, and there's no more space for power."

With such significant issues that need to be solved, the Shark Tank mentor said they need to be worked on. Otherwise, they would lose the "AI race" to China. He stated that they have to "start building" them, or there would be a problem.

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Fans can follow Kevin O'Leary on Instagram (@kevinolearytv) to learn more about the AI data centers and his views on them.

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