OpenAI says it will stop using non-disclosure agreements with public officials and make sure local residents do not end up paying for the electricity its data centres use, Bloomberg reported on November 5. The promises came two days after US voters backed candidates who favour limits on data centres and more AI oversight. OpenAI told Bloomberg the plan had been months in the making and was prepared before the results came in.
What OpenAI is promising
The commitments sit in a document called the National Community Compact. A companion Compute Campus Policy Blueprint sets out rules OpenAI wants lawmakers to adopt. According to Bloomberg and Engadget, the promises include:
- Power bills: paying the full cost of its electricity, plus the grid upgrades that power companies need to serve its sites.
- Water: a water plan for each community, with priority for closed-loop or low-water cooling. In a closed loop, water circulates through a sealed system and is rarely replaced.
- Transparency: publishing water and electricity use for each site, and giving clear data on noise and other local impacts.
- Secrecy: no non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, with public officials.
- The grid: cutting power use at peak times and sending electricity back to the grid.
- Jobs: local hiring goals where the local workforce allows, and public reports on progress.
Why now
Data centres have become a real political problem for the AI industry. Residents worry that expensive grid upgrades and power spikes will be passed on to them, and Bloomberg cites research group Data Center Watch as saying at least 45 projects worth $88 billion were disrupted by local opposition in the second quarter of 2026.
The election raised the stakes. Gina Hinojosa, elected governor of Texas, has called for an immediate moratorium on data centre development, Bloomberg reports, and other Democratic wins for governor in Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania could bring tougher scrutiny to about half of proposed US AI data centre additions.
Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, told Bloomberg that some projects may be delayed. He said many of these communities have suffered from globalisation, and that “these folks have been really burned by companies and others in the past.”
The fine print
There are limits worth noticing. RuntimeWire reports that the cost pledge covers future campuses OpenAI owns and operates, and it is not clear whether leased, partner-run or existing sites are included. So this does not obviously apply to every facility doing OpenAI’s work.
These are also voluntary promises. The blueprint asks lawmakers to apply similar terms to all large developers, but that is a proposal and not a law. None of the reports we read explains how anyone outside the company could enforce the pledges.
The language is part of the strategy too. TechCrunch reported on November 1, citing Axios, that OpenAI was preparing a post-election publicity push that included rebranding data centres as “AI compute campuses”. OpenAI is also not alone in dropping NDAs: Amazon and Microsoft have said they will stop using them in negotiations with local governments.
What it means for you
If a data centre is proposed near you, these promises give you some useful questions to ask. Will the developer publish water and power use for the site? Who pays for grid upgrades if the project is delayed or scaled back? Have local officials signed an NDA? Is the operator OpenAI itself or another company?
Your electricity bill does not change because of this announcement. Treat the pledge as a starting point, and judge it on the site-level figures OpenAI has promised to publish once they appear.
Sources
- OpenAI to Change How It Handles Data Center Efforts After Outcry — Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance
- OpenAI says it will protect local resources and report on the impact of its data centers — Engadget
- OpenAI promises to cover data center power costs under new compact — RuntimeWire
- OpenAI might rebrand its data centers as 'AI compute campuses' — TechCrunch