Report: Trump officials hold AI investments while overseeing Utah public lands data center
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Trump officials connected to a proposed data center complex near Price are heavily invested in the AI industry, ProPublica reports.
Why it matters: The financial ties could add fuel to controversy around Valar Atomics' plans to build a huge nuclear-powered data center campus on Bureau of Land Management land in Carbon County.
- Complaints that public input on the project has been limited echo allegations of secrecy in the approval process for other data centers in Utah.
Valar didn't immediately respond to Axios' query Friday but has promised transparency and public input in previous statements.
Driving the news: ProPublica reported Friday that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other Trump officials have millions invested in the AI industry as the administration pushes for more data centers on public land.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin has made smaller investments in AI while ending public feedback requirements for air permits for data centers.
- The federal agencies they lead told ProPublica their investments are lawful — though legal experts told the outlet they raise ethical questions.
Zoom in: In an NPR report in September, the Bureau of Land Management acknowledged it was reviewing a permit for the Valar campus, known as "Project Beehive," proposed for 9,000 acres of federal land.
- Michael Boren, a high-ranking U.S. Forest Service Trump appointee who previously was at the Department of the Interior, has "up to $500,000 invested with Valar," ProPublica reported — though no Forest Service land is involved in the proposed data center.
Zoom out: Public anger over data centers influenced the outcome of several Utah elections this year.
The intrigue: While community backlash has preempted, slowed or reduced the scale of some data center proposals, federal agendas are harder for locals to influence.
- Valar representatives' appearances at county and city meetings have also been closed to public comments and questions, the Salt Lake Tribune recently reported.
What's next: Public hearings will be likely in coming weeks as Valar seeks county permitting.