OpenAI publishes community compact for data centers

OpenAI announced two documents: a National Community Compact, which sets out what communities can expect at future campuses OpenAI owns and operates, and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint aimed at federal, state and local policymakers.

Under the compact, each future OpenAI-owned campus will get its own local agreement. Shared commitments include paying the full cost of the electricity and grid infrastructure it uses, with financial assurances before major spending begins so other ratepayers are protected if a project is delayed, reduced or canceled. OpenAI also commits to a water plan for each campus, a preference for closed-loop or low-water cooling, and public reporting of site-level water and electricity use, noise studies and hiring. It says it will not use NDAs with public officials, apart from narrow carve-outs for security information and trade secrets.

The compact builds on the Stargate Community commitments OpenAI announced in January and on site-specific pledges in Georgia and Ohio. In Effingham County, Georgia, residents helped shape a $4.8 million grant for free school meals for 14,000 students. In Pike County, Ohio, OpenAI and SB Energy committed $6 million jointly to childcare.

The blueprint asks state utility commissions to make large customers cover the costs they add to the grid, and asks utilities to speed up connections for campuses that can cut demand when power is scarce. OpenAI's Georgia Power agreement lets the utility reduce delivery to the Effingham campus by up to 1,000 megawatts during periods of high demand. The blueprint also calls on Congress to speed up transmission upgrades and to restore clean-electricity tax incentives, and says state and local tax-incentive terms should be public and recoverable if a developer falls short.

The commitments cover only campuses OpenAI owns and operates. The announcement does not say how many such sites are planned.