OpenAI pledges local say, full power costs and no NDAs for data centers

What OpenAI announced

On Thursday, 5 November, OpenAI unveiled a package of commitments two days after voters in the midterm elections on Tuesday, 3 November, widely backed ballot measures meant to limit the AI construction boom. The company now refers to its data centers as what it calls compute campuses. Under a document it titles the National Community Compact, each future campus that OpenAI owns and operates will carry its own local agreement and a yearly public report. OpenAI also released a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint aimed at local, state and federal officials.

Electricity, water and cost protection

OpenAI said it will pay the full bill for the electricity its sites consume, along with the grid upgrades and buildouts its power providers need to serve them. To keep neighbours from absorbing those costs, it will post financial guarantees so households and businesses are not stuck paying for upgrades if a project is cancelled. The company also plans to develop a water plan for each host community and to favour closed-loop or low-water cooling, in which water circulates through a sealed circuit and is not used up. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI said it had been working on these updates for months and had planned them before the midterm results came in.

Transparency and the policy blueprint

OpenAI will publish water and electricity use for every site, along with construction plans and independent studies of traffic, noise and lighting. Those documents are due before operations begin and then every year. The company will also stop requiring public officials to sign nondisclosure agreements, though it kept exceptions for legitimate security information, trade secrets and commercially sensitive material. It said it had voided one such agreement in Effingham County, Georgia, in July. Chris Lehane, OpenAI's global affairs chief, told reporters, according to Reuters, that the sites would bring long-term jobs because installed equipment must be replaced every three to five years. The blueprint asks state utility providers to make large electricity customers cover the grid costs they create and to protect other customers if a project falls through. It would also let providers throttle power to data centers when demand peaks, and it calls for developers to report publicly on water, energy and noise, along with expected job openings.

Political backdrop

The announcement followed Democratic gains in the midterms. Engadget reported that several outspoken critics of AI expansion won seats and are backing federal rules on data center activity. According to Data Centers on the Ballot, voters backed 39 measures that restrict data centers in some form. Publico reported that many read the Democratic gains as voter rejection of industry plans to build data centers across the country, and Les Echos described a backlash among part of the American population against them. Le Monde reported that Elon Musk, the SpaceX chief who lives in Texas, joked on the night of 3 to 4 November that data centers in space looked attractive at the moment, after the Democratic victory. OpenAI's pledges are addressed to officials at every level of government.