OpenAI Reaffirms Full Energy-Cost Pledge in New Data Center Community Compact
Smartor 편집팀
November 5, 2026
Featured image: AI-generated explanatory image. A concept of data centers, the power grid and nearby communities, not a photograph of an actual facility.
OpenAI reaffirmed a pledge to pay the full cost of electricity and related infrastructure for future U.S. AI data centers it owns and operates. In a National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint published on November 5, the company set out commitments on community input, resource disclosures and local employment.
The company said it would cover both the power it uses and the infrastructure needed to supply it. Before major spending begins, OpenAI said it would provide financial assurances to protect other electricity customers if a project is delayed, reduced or canceled.
The compact includes a water plan for each campus, a preference for closed-loop or low-water cooling, and publication of site-level water and electricity use. OpenAI also pledged to publish construction plans and independent noise studies before operations begin and annually afterward. It said it would not use non-disclosure agreements with public officials, while allowing narrow protections for legitimate security information, trade secrets and other proprietary or competitively sensitive information.
Each local compact would involve residents while project plans can still change and provide a local contact throughout the campus’s lifetime. OpenAI said it would publish expected job creation, work with unions and training providers, and report annually on hiring and apprenticeships.
The accompanying blueprint proposes rules extending basic protections across the industry. It calls for state utility commissions to require large power customers to cover the costs they add to the grid. It also proposes public terms and measurable commitments for tax incentives, with a way to recover benefits when developers fall short. These are policy proposals; the announcement does not itself put a new law into effect.
OpenAI said its agreement with Georgia Power for a planned campus in Effingham County allows the utility to reduce electricity supplied to the site by up to 1,000 megawatts during periods of high demand. The company described the new compact as an extension of its January Stargate community commitments and subsequent project-specific promises in Georgia and Ohio.
CNBC reported that OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane told reporters on November 4 that the blueprint had been in development since August and drew on lessons from earlier projects. The compact’s direct commitments apply to future campuses OpenAI owns and operates.