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GRAND FORKS – Famed investor and television personality Kevin O’Leary shares his thoughts on AI, drone technology and North Dakota’s role in the future of both during a Friday “Fireside Chat” during his national tour. Ta.
O’Leary, star of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” joined UND President Andrew Armacost in a packed Memorial Union ballroom.
So many people stopped by to attend the event that ushers had to close the door five minutes before the event started and direct people to another room to watch the event remotely.
Armacost noted that the crowd size was comparable to that of OpenAI founder Greg Brockman, a native of Thompson, North Dakota, who visited campus in September.
“You’d better get that out there,” O’Leary said, half-jokingly. “No one knows he’s from North Dakota.”
Mr. O’Leary is on an “investment tour” that takes him through several states. In Grand Forks, this included a tour of Grand Sky Air Park and his city-owned HIVE building. The latter now has a conference room that bears O’Leary’s name as a result of O’Leary’s sponsorship deal with his Ventures.
O’Leary Ventures is also partnering with North Dakota on the Wonder Fund, a $45 million direct investment program.
“This is about the long game,” O’Leary told the Herald. “You have to think about where you’re going to dance or go on a date. This isn’t a place to compete. This is a place to build relationships.”
In a conversation with Armacost, O’Leary called North Dakota a “winner state” compared to states like Minnesota and New Jersey, which have tighter regulations and higher income taxes for high-income earners. defended.
He particularly focused on the country’s role in emerging fields such as AI and drone technology.
He said AI is a useful productivity tool, but it won’t create new tech giants like Google or Microsoft. He said these companies are likely to develop and manage the technology because they are among the few companies that can pay billions of dollars for AI data centers running their workloads. Stated.
But O’Leary said North Dakota still has room to benefit because of its combination of cheap energy, fiber infrastructure and pro-business leadership.
“The new oil is data,” O’Leary said. “If people end up owning data centers, they’re going to store all their data in places like this.”
He also called North Dakota’s foray into drone technology a “huge opportunity,” saying the state has the potential to join Oklahoma in standardizing the way manned and unmanned aircraft interact in the skies. It is one of only two states in the world.
Wonder Fund North Dakota’s largest investment is HIVE-based Thread, a software company specializing in automated inspection processes using unmanned air systems.
Mr. O’Leary also shared advice for the perfect business pitch, including Canada is run by idiots and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s candy store (which he had booked to California Governor Gavin Newsom). He said he could not trust the company to run the company. He advised people to invest in mutual funds rather than playing the stock market themselves, but he said, “If you can beat the index, you will become very rich one day.”
Asked by Armacost whether he thought UND or Denver was the better hockey team, O’Leary said the best team was in Boston.
There were boos in the auditorium, which amused O’Leary.
“Mr. Wonderful always tells the truth,” he said.
Joshua Irvine covers K-12 and higher education and the Grand Forks County Commission. He joined the Grand Forks Herald in October 2023.
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