Kevin O’Leary is not mincing words about the global artificial intelligence race. The investor and television personality argues that while the United States debates rules and permitting, China is rapidly scaling the raw infrastructure that makes advanced AI possible. In his view, the combination of cheap power, fast approvals and national focus means China is already pulling ahead, and current U.S. regulations risk locking in that lead.
At stake is more than bragging rights over the latest chatbot. O’Leary frames AI as the backbone of future economic and military power, warning that whoever controls the largest, most efficient data centers will shape everything from finance to national security. He insists that unless Washington rewrites how it treats energy, land and data infrastructure, the U.S. could find itself dependent on rivals for the core technology of the next century.
O’Leary’s warning: China is “kicking our heinies” in AI
Kevin O’Leary has turned his media platform into a running alarm bell about the AI balance of power. In recent interviews he has said bluntly that China is “kicking our heinies” in the race to build and deploy large-scale artificial intelligence, arguing that Beijing has treated AI as a national priority while Washington has buried it under layers of process. He ties that gap directly to the speed at which Chinese authorities approve and connect massive data centers, contrasting it with what he describes as years of delay in the United States caused by environmental reviews, local opposition and overlapping regulators, a complaint he has repeated while discussing how regulatory roadblocks stall US projects.
O’Leary’s critique is not abstract. He points to the way China has mobilized state and private capital to build out AI infrastructure at national scale, describing a system where political leaders can greenlight new power plants and data campuses in months. In his telling, that decisiveness has allowed China to surge ahead in the physical capacity needed to train and run large models, even as U.S. companies lead in algorithms and chips. He argues that if the infrastructure gap widens, the innovation edge will eventually follow the power and concrete.
“Neck-deep” in data centers, and worried about power
Part of what gives O’Leary’s comments weight is that he is not just commenting from the sidelines. He has said he is “neck-deep in building data centers right now,” using that experience to argue that the bottleneck in North America is no longer chips but electricity. In his view, the hardest part of launching new AI campuses is securing long term, low cost power contracts and getting grid connections approved, a challenge he has described in detail while warning that China is crushing us in the race to add capacity.
O’Leary contrasts that with what he portrays as a far more direct approach in Beijing. In one social media video he argues that the key is “Not chips. Power,” and says that “When the Supreme Leader wants more capacity, he builds a coal plant. Simple. No 5-year regulatory nightmare,” a line he uses to illustrate how quickly Chinese authorities can respond to AI demand by adding generation and transmission, as he put it in a post about being neck-deep in building data infrastructure. He presents that speed, regardless of environmental cost, as a strategic advantage that lets Chinese firms plan multi-gigawatt AI clusters with confidence that the power will be there when the servers arrive.
Gigawatt AI campuses and China’s push for dominance
O’Leary has gone further, arguing that China is not just building more data centers, it is designing them explicitly as tools of geopolitical leverage. In a widely shared video he says that China is using AI technology “for world dominance,” describing how authorities are backing gigawatt-scale AI data centers that combine enormous compute clusters with dedicated power plants. He portrays these gigawatt AI campuses as engines for surveillance, industrial planning and military applications, warning that they could give Beijing a structural edge in everything from autonomous weapons to financial modeling, a concern he underscored while describing how China is using AI technology to extend its influence.
In that framing, the AI race is inseparable from a broader economic contest. O’Leary has described the relationship between China and the U.S. as “a long-term economic dance,” noting that “One minute it’s chips, then TikTok, then rare earths,” and now the focus has shifted to AI infrastructure. He argues that each of these fronts reflects the same underlying struggle over who sets the rules of the global economy, and he warns that if China locks up leadership in AI data centers the West could find itself reacting to Beijing’s moves rather than shaping them, a point he made while explaining how China and the U.S. are trading blows across multiple technologies.
North America’s energy crunch and the Wonder Valley bet
For O’Leary, the core constraint in North America is not ambition but physics. He has argued that “North America all of it needs more power if we’re going to be independent and protect” our position in advanced industries, warning that existing grids were not built for the sudden surge in AI demand. In a short video he frames the situation as an “economic war” with China, saying that without a rapid build-out of new generation and transmission, AI developers in the U.S. and its neighbors will be forced to choose between sky-high prices or moving workloads abroad, a risk he highlighted while warning that North America is falling behind on energy.
That diagnosis underpins his own push to develop what he has called the world’s largest AI data center project. O’Leary has promoted the Wonder Valley AI Data initiative in Canada as a roughly 70 billion dollar “AI megaproject,” presenting it as proof that North America can still build at scale if regulators and investors align. He has shared tables ranking the world’s 20 largest upcoming data center projects and placed Wonder Valley at the top, arguing that it shows how the region can compete with Chinese gigawatt campuses when it secures land, power and skilled labor in one package, a case he laid out while highlighting his Wonder Valley AI Data project.
Regulation, Trump’s “green light,” and the path forward
O’Leary’s critique of U.S. policy centers on what he calls a self-inflicted regulatory drag. He argues that overlapping environmental reviews, local permitting fights and uncertainty over long term energy rules have made it “almost impossible” to find low cost, sustainable power along with land and skilled workers in the same place. In his view, that combination of constraints has pushed data center developers to chase a shrinking set of viable sites, driving up costs and slowing deployment, a pattern he described while noting that Finding low cost sustainable power in North America has become a central challenge.
At the same time, O’Leary has welcomed signals from President Donald Trump that the federal government will prioritize energy and infrastructure for AI. He has praised what he calls Trump’s “Green Light For AI,” arguing that clearer direction from Washington on permitting and power could unlock stalled projects and narrow the gap with China. In his recent comments he has linked that political shift to his broader warning that America could lose the AI race if it does not move faster on infrastructure, and he has repeated that Kevin Leary warns China is already ahead because it treats power and land as strategic assets rather than obstacles.
O’Leary’s message is ultimately a call for urgency rather than despair. He insists that the U.S. still leads in AI research and chip design, and that its allies can match Chinese scale if they treat data centers and energy as core national priorities. But he also stresses that time is not on Washington’s side, pointing to repeated examples where China is racing ahead while U.S. projects wait for signatures. In his telling, the choice is stark: either rewrite the rules to match the scale of the AI era, or accept that the next generation of digital power will be built somewhere else.
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Grant Mercer covers market dynamics, business trends, and the economic forces driving growth across industries. His analysis connects macro movements with real-world implications for investors, entrepreneurs, and professionals. Through his work at The Daily Overview, Grant helps readers understand how markets function and where opportunities may emerge.
