OpenAI says future campuses it owns will pay their own power costs

OpenAI has published a National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint. The compact covers future compute campuses the company owns and operates. OpenAI said those campuses will pay the full cost of the electricity they use.

The compact covers campuses OpenAI owns and operates. OpenAI says every future compute campus it owns and operates will have its own local compact. It says it will talk with residents early enough that their input shapes project plans, name a local point of contact for the life of the campus, and report publicly each year. The blueprint is a separate proposal for federal, state, and local policymakers. It is not a rule that has been adopted.

OpenAI says it will pay its own power costs. "We'll pay the full cost of the electricity we use and the infrastructure needed to serve us." Before major spending begins, OpenAI says it will provide financial assurances so other customers are protected if a project is delayed, reduced, or canceled. The post does not name a new campus and does not give a dollar figure for the compact itself.

Water plans and disclosure limits are commitments, not a new statute. OpenAI says it will write a water plan for each campus, prioritize closed-loop or low-water cooling, and publish site-level water and electricity use. It says it will publish construction plans and independent noise studies before operations begin, and again each year. It says it will not use non-disclosure agreements with public officials, allowing only narrow protections for legitimate security information, trade secrets, or proprietary or competitively sensitive information.

The local dollar figures are examples the post cites. OpenAI says residents in Effingham County, Georgia, helped shape a $4.8 million grant for free school meals for all 14,000 students in the county. It says families in Pike County, Ohio, identified childcare as a priority, leading to a joint $6 million commitment from OpenAI and SB Energy. Those amounts are examples in the post. They are not new spending announced with the compact.

The blueprint asks regulators to make large users cover the power they add. OpenAI says state utility commissions should require large electricity customers to cover the costs they add to the grid and to protect other customers if a project falls through. At its planned Effingham County campus, OpenAI says its agreement with Georgia Power allows the utility to reduce power delivered to the campus by up to 1,000 megawatts during periods of high demand. The blueprint also asks Congress to speed transmission upgrades and to restore and expand tax incentives for clean electricity. OpenAI says each future campus it owns and operates will have its own local compact.