OpenAI to pay full data-center power costs, drop official NDAs

OpenAI will pay the full electricity and required infrastructure costs at every data center it owns and operates, and stop signing nondisclosure agreements with public officials, the company said in a document it calls the National Community Compact. CNBC reported the pledge arrived as voters backed limits on data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures across 10 states.

The document is also a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint, and OpenAI wants its sites called 'AI compute campuses' rather than data centers. It promises financial assurances to protect other utility customers from costs if projects are delayed, reduced or canceled, and commits the company to disclose noise, water use and energy demand, reduce peak electricity use, return power to the grid, and set local hiring targets where feasible.

'This will help ensure that there is a very high floor in terms of how people move forward,' said Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer.

Two site-specific figures anchor the compact. In Effingham County, Georgia, home of Project Camellia, OpenAI lists an $80 million commitment including a $4.8 million grant for free school meals for all 14,000 county students and $2 million for a local park. In Pike County, Ohio, families named childcare as a priority, producing a joint $6 million pledge from OpenAI and SB Energy.

The backdrop is sharp. A Quinnipiac poll cited in the reporting puts opposition to a nearby AI data center at 73% of registered voters. Our own feed has logged a run of data-center regulation stories this week, including data-center stocks sliding after the Democratic sweep.