OpenAI weighs renaming data centres as public opposition grows before US midterms

A rename floated before the midterms

OpenAI is weighing whether a new name could make data centres less unpopular with the public. Chris Lehane, the company's chief global affairs officer, told Axios that "AI compute campuses" is one of the ideas on the table, alongside proposals for AI "speed limits" and for the United States to help write global standards. Axios reported on 1 November that OpenAI is preparing a large PR effort for the period after the midterm elections on Tuesday, 3 November 2026, when Democrats are widely expected to win back the House of Representatives and could also take the Senate. Lehane described the public argument over data centres as good for the country, and he said communities should press companies to answer for their projects so residents genuinely gain from them.

“Communities should hold companies responsible and accountable so they really and truly get a transformative benefit from these projects.”

Lehane's memo on the 2028 race

Politico published Lehane's memo, titled "2028: The AI Election", in full on Monday, 2 November. The memo argues that AI will be the top issue in the 2028 US presidential race and offers five questions candidates should be able to answer. It compares that moment with 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal rewrote the social contract, and says a candidate who stakes out a "compelling third path" could define a new contract. POLITICO reports that the memo went to about half a dozen prospective candidates, along with some members of Congress and prominent political operatives, according to a person familiar with it who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The five questions cover how humans keep control over AI, how the tax system should respond, the effects on children and workers, what AI costs ordinary households, and whether the US can stay ahead of China. Lehane writes that "AI is a machine, not a person" and calls for enforceable safety standards, independent assessments and the ability to shut systems down. In one scenario he sketches, Democrats at an early 2028 event raise their hands to back a data centre moratorium, and within six months the US could lose its AI lead to China because it lacks computing capacity.

“This could well be the 2028 version of the 2002 vote to go to war in Iraq.”

Polls, ads and the Florida governor's race

A PF Global survey for Politico, published 25 October, found that half of Americans now oppose building data centres within 5 km of their homes, the highest level of opposition since Politico began tracking the question. Lehane's memo cites his own polling, which shows 66% of respondents supporting continued AI development, with 53% wanting stronger safeguards and 24% favouring a pause.

Support continued AI development66%

Want stronger safeguards53%

Favour a pause24%

Support continued AI development

66 %

Want stronger safeguards

53 %

Favour a pause

24 %

Data from the article text

The memo adds that by early October one in five advertisements from Democratic candidates or groups mentioned data centres, most of them in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, where companies are planning and building sites. In Florida, The Verge reports that the issue is now weighing on the governor's race. Republican nominee Byron Donalds holds Trump's endorsement, the party's backing and $148 million in campaign funds, much of it from the tech industry, yet he has been a vocal backer of data centre projects, a stance that may cost him votes even within his own party. His Democratic rival, former Republican David Jolly, who left the party in 2018, has promised a one-year moratorium on data centre developments and has visited Loudoun County in Virginia, known as Data Center Alley.

Jobs, China and the sequence of events

Lehane writes that OpenAI's compute campus in Piketon, Ohio, will need 25,000 skilled tradespeople on its own. The memo also says OpenAI's analysts found likely Chinese Communist Party influence operations in the US, with social media posts claiming AI buildouts are pushing up household electricity bills. TechCrunch notes that Amazon and Microsoft have said they will stop using non-disclosure agreements in their negotiations with local governments over data centres. According to The Independent, OpenAI also plans to promote discussion of mandatory safeguards that would limit how quickly companies can develop new systems, while stressing economic benefits and international cooperation on regulation.

The sequence runs from the 25 October poll to Axios's 1 November report, Politico's 2 November publication of the memo and the 3 November midterms. OpenAI's policy push is set to begin right after that vote.