Kevin O’Leary shared what he would do if he were 25 again, offering advice for young people just starting their careers. The Canadian billionaire and Shark Tank investor said that he would focus on two areas within the artificial intelligence (AI) industry: helping small businesses adopt AI and developing data centers. In a video shared earlier this year, O’Leary said he believes these sectors are positioned to benefit from the growing use of AI across industries.“I think AI growth is going to be exponential,” O’Leary said.Rather than competing directly with large technology companies, O’Leary said he would focus on helping businesses with fewer than 500 employees implement AI tools. According to him, many smaller businesses want to adopt AI but may not have the expertise to integrate it into their operations.“There’s going to be a massive amount of people wanting to use it that don’t know how to and they’re willing to pay to solve that pain point,” O’Leary said.He described the opportunity as one centred on “implementation and execution” rather than traditional consulting. O’Leary, who is serving as an Executive Fellow at Harvard for the 2025-2026 academic year, has previously said he advises MBA students against pursuing consulting careers.
Kevin O’Leary says data centers are another area to watch
The second opportunity O’Leary identified is data center development, which he said is becoming increasingly important as AI adoption expands.“The biggest pain point in AI is data centers. That’s real-estate development,” O’Leary noted. He said current data center construction is not keeping pace with demand for AI infrastructure.“The demand is insatiable,” he added.O’Leary has invested in data center projects, including a planned C$70 billion industrial park in Alberta designed to deliver 7.5 gigawatts of computing capacity. He has also backed a US$100 billion data center project in Utah. Both projects have faced scrutiny, including questions over development timelines and potential impacts on nearby communities.
Growing AI adoption is driving infrastructure investment
Demand for AI infrastructure has led technology companies to expand spending on data centers. Goldman Sachs Research estimates that increasing AI use could raise data center power demand by 165% by the end of the decade.Companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Google have committed billions of dollars toward expanding data center capacity. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management previously estimated that annual capital expenditure by hyperscale technology companies on data centers and related infrastructure was approaching $400 billion.O’Leary said neither business is directly involved in developing AI models themselves, but helping businesses deploy AI tools and building data center infrastructure support the broader AI ecosystem.
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