Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo had to read a roughly 45-second on-air correction on the morning of June 26, 2026, after “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary retracted explosive allegations he made during multiple appearances on the network. The unusual apology came after O’Leary admitted he had no proof for claims that opposition to his Utah data center project was secretly financed by China.
O’Leary had used Fox programs to promote the Stratos Project, his artificial intelligence data center development that originally spanned up to 40,000 acres in Utah before O’Leary agreed in June to scale the footprint back by roughly 75% amid political pressure, shrinking the project area to about 10,000 acres. Residents and advocacy groups raised concerns about water supplies, electricity demand, and environmental impact. Rather than addressing those issues directly, O’Leary reframed the resistance as a matter of national security.
Fox Anchors Fan Out Across Shows
The correction didn’t stop with Bartiromo’s program. Fox News host Johnny Joey Jones delivered a similar statement on “The Big Weekend Show,” while anchor Kayleigh McEnany read another during “Saturday in America.” The apology ultimately aired on four shows across Fox News and Fox Business, including “The Big Money Show,” in what media analysts quickly characterized as an unusual network-wide cleanup operation.
Bartiromo told viewers that O’Leary had acknowledged lacking any proof connecting the Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, or individuals Josh Kanter (the Alliance’s founder), Taylor Knuth (a former Alliance leader), and Gabrielle Finlayson (a senior partner at Elevate) to China or its Communist Party. She added that Fox News Media similarly knew of no such evidence and apologized for the error.
O’Leary’s China Claims Unravel
The controversy traces back to May, when O’Leary began making the rounds on Fox News and Fox Business to promote the project. He appeared on “Mornings with Maria” on May 11 wearing a “Utah National Security” hat and making broader claims about Chinese interference and then returned on “The Big Weekend Show” on May 24, where he specifically identified the Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, and individuals Kanter, Knuth, and Finlayson while suggesting connections to Chinese Communist Party financing. The accused parties denounced the allegations as outlandish and entirely without basis.
On June 25, O’Leary posted a retraction on social media, acknowledging that he had no evidence linking the named parties to China or the Chinese Communist Party. Bartiromo also displayed O’Leary’s social media retraction on screen during her broadcast, making the walkback visible to her audience in his own words. Notably, his statement stopped well short of an apology — he clarified the record without expressing any remorse for the damage the claims may have caused.
Legal Threat Suspected Behind the Tour
Status media reporter Oliver Darcy described the synchronized response as a “coordinated cleanup effort” and called it a rare display of contrition from a network that rarely assumes such a posture. The coordinated nature of the effort — the same carefully worded statement read by multiple anchors across multiple programs — was striking for a network not known for public self-correction.
Darcy suggested the speed and scope of the apology tour pointed toward legal pressure as a likely motivating factor, though the precise catalyst remained unclear. Darcy argued that once O’Leary publicly admitted he had no evidence for his allegations, Fox found itself in an untenable position — having amplified claims the guest himself could not defend.
The speculation is not without context. In April 2023, Fox settled a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems, paying over $787 million after airing false allegations about the company’s voting machines and election fraud. That landmark settlement made the network acutely aware of the financial and reputational risks of airing false accusations without adequate verification.
The retractions didn’t stop with Fox. Utah Sen. Todd Weiler, who had cited O’Leary’s claims in his own social media posts questioning whether the Alliance for a Better Utah was Chinese-funded, posted his own walkback on June 29: “Oops. I was duped. Sorry everyone.” Weiler said he had relied on O’Leary’s now-withdrawn allegations and reconsidered after seeing the June 25 retraction, adding that he hadn’t been threatened with a lawsuit and wasn’t reacting to political pressure.
A Debate Bigger Than One Project
Beyond the immediate embarrassment for Bartiromo and Fox, the episode highlights a growing tension playing out across the country as tech companies and investors race to build the AI infrastructure that increasingly puts developers on a collision course with local communities and environmental advocates.
O’Leary’s attempt to recast local opposition as enemy-sponsored sabotage ultimately collapsed under scrutiny — a reminder that amplifying a guest’s accusations carries real consequences when the facts fail to follow.