“He’d be all over AI” – Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary names Edison as his ultimate pick for an all-time entrepreneur

Kevin O’Leary, known for his business acumen on Shark Tank, recently shared his thoughts on Thomas Edison. In an Instagram video posted on February 1, 2025, O’Leary stated:

“If I could pull forward any great entrepreneur from any time in history and give them a job at O’Leary Ventures, who would it be? Edison. You know what he’d be doing right now? Making data centers. He’d be all over AI. Big time.”

The investor, also recognized as Mr. Wonderful, has consistently voiced opinions on artificial intelligence, its implications for business, and geopolitical concerns. O'Leary's interest in AI has grown significantly, leading to discussions on the technology’s economic impact and its role in global competition.

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Shark Tank's Kevin O’Leary’s stance on AI

Shark Tank star O’Leary has made multiple statements about artificial intelligence. One of his comments came in an Instagram post on January 28, where he discussed Deepseek AI, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup. Warning about the platform’s implications, he declared:

“The U.S. is in an economic war with China—whether you see it or not.”

He compared Deepseek to TikTok and Lemon8, calling them “Trojan horses for data collection.” The Shark Tank investor questioned why the U.S. allowed Chinese tech companies to operate domestically when China did not reciprocate. His concerns aligned with reports from Upstox that Deepseek’s capabilities rival those of OpenAI and Google, with its latest models achieving a 97% success rate.

Deepseek’s emergence also had financial consequences. Following news of the startup’s capabilities, Nvidia’s market value dropped by nearly $600 billion in a single day.

This raised further concerns about the competitive landscape in AI, prompting O’Leary to issue a warning: “WAKE UP America.” His remarks echoed those of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who called the situation “America’s Sputnik moment.”

The hardware powering Deepseek also remains a contentious issue. While the company claims to use Nvidia A100 GPUs and legally exported H800 chips, some industry experts suspect otherwise. Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang alleged that Deepseek possesses around 50,000 H100 chips, despite U.S. export restrictions.

Beyond his warnings about AI competition, the Shark Tank star O’Leary has also taken action to position himself within the industry. As per the Calgary Herald on December 10, 2024, Kevin's company, O’Leary Ventures, recently announced a proposal to develop Wonder Valley, which aims to become the world’s largest AI data center industrial park.

The project is planned for northwest Alberta, Canada, and is expected to require a total investment of up to $70 billion. According to the Calgary Herald, O’Leary highlighted Alberta’s unique advantages.

“Projects like this have extremely attractive returns, and so I think Alberta is waking up to what they have just now. I mean, they could easily lead globally in data centers,” he said.

He emphasized that AI-driven data centers need vast amounts of power, land, and connectivity—all of which Alberta offers. The first phase of Wonder Valley is expected to cost around $2 billion, providing 1.4 gigawatts of power.

The full project could eventually supply 7.5 gigawatts of energy. O’Leary stressed the importance of self-sufficient energy sources for such operations, stating that the project would rely on off-grid natural gas and geothermal power. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with O’Leary in early December to discuss the project, reinforcing the region’s commitment to attracting AI investment.

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Shark Tank airs every Friday on ABC.