OpenAI Vows No NDAs, Full Power Bills for Data Centers

OpenAI published a National Community Compact on Thursday, November 5, promising to pay the full cost of electricity at the data centers it owns and runs, publish how much water and power each site uses, and stop asking local officials to sign non-disclosure agreements. The announcement comes two days after voters across the United States backed limits on data center projects in local elections.

What we know / What we don’t know

What we know:

• OpenAI published a National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint on November 5, 2026, covering future campuses it owns and operates.
• OpenAI will pay the full cost of the electricity it uses and the grid work needed to serve its sites, with financial guarantees in place before major spending starts.
• Each campus gets a water plan with closed-loop or low-water cooling preferred. OpenAI will publish site-level water and electricity use, construction plans, and independent noise studies before a site opens and every year after.
• OpenAI will not ask public officials to sign NDAs, with only narrow exceptions for security details, trade secrets, and proprietary information.
• In Effingham County, Georgia, a $4.8 million grant funds free school meals for all 14,000 students; in Pike County, Ohio, OpenAI and SB Energy jointly committed $6 million for childcare.

What we don’t know:

• The compact covers only campuses OpenAI owns and operates. OpenAI has not said which current sites that includes, and the promises do not automatically cover sites run by partners.
• The commitments are voluntary. OpenAI will report on its own progress each year, but no outside body enforces the compact.
• Reports disagree on the ballot count: one tracker says voters backed data center limits in 39 of 41 local measures, while CNBC reported 40 of 41.
• The blueprint is a proposal to lawmakers, not a law. Whether states adopt its rules is up to lawmakers.

Key facts

What OpenAI announced today

OpenAI is putting its promises to host communities in writing. The National Community Compact sets out what people living near a future OpenAI campus can expect. The Compute Campus Policy Blueprint goes further, asking federal, state, and local lawmakers to turn many of the same rules into law for the whole industry.

“Today we’re publishing our National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint,” OpenAI said. “The compact sets out what communities can expect from OpenAI at future campuses that we own and operate. The blueprint proposes policies to help ensure that compute campus development gives communities a meaningful voice, protects families from new costs, and broadly shares the economic gains of AI.”

The company also gave its data centers a new name, calling them “compute campuses.” The name change is small, but the timing is not an accident: OpenAI is trying to rebuild trust with the towns where it wants to build, and the compact is the centerpiece of that effort.

What the compact actually promises

The compact makes three broad promises, each answering a complaint that has come up again and again in towns facing new data centers.

Pay its own way on energy. The biggest fear for many residents is simple: a giant new customer plugs into the local grid, the power company spends a fortune on new lines and substations, and ordinary households end up paying for it through higher bills. OpenAI says it will pay the full cost of the electricity it uses and the infrastructure needed to serve it, with financial assurances in place before major spending starts. At the planned Effingham County campus in Georgia, its agreement with Georgia Power allows the utility to cut power to the site by up to 1,000 megawatts during periods of high demand, so the grid can pull back from the campus first when everyone else needs electricity.

Protect local resources and report on the impact. Data centers use a lot of water for cooling, and they make noise. OpenAI says each campus will have a water plan, with closed-loop or low-water cooling preferred, so the site uses far less fresh water. The company will publish how much water and electricity each site uses, publish construction plans, and commission independent noise studies before operations begin and every year after. It will also stop using NDAs with public officials, apart from narrow protections for security information, trade secrets, or proprietary details. NDAs have been one of the most bitter complaints in data center fights: residents often learn that their town council signed a secrecy agreement with a developer months before the public heard anything.

Create opportunities for local workers and businesses. OpenAI says it will publish the jobs it expects to create at each campus, work with unions and training providers to help residents prepare for them, and report annually on hiring and apprenticeships. It will also make sustained investments in priorities that residents help select — school meals in Effingham County, childcare in Pike County.

Why now: voters just pushed back

The timing is impossible to miss. Two days before this announcement, voters across the United States went to the polls in the midterm elections, and data centers were on the ballot in dozens of towns. Voters backed limits on data center projects in nearly every local vote on the question — 39 of 41 measures, according to the Data Centers on the Ballot tracker, while CNBC reported 40 of 41. At least 45 projects worth $88 billion were disrupted by local opposition in the second quarter of 2026 alone, according to the research group Data Center Watch. A Quinnipiac poll cited by CNBC found that 73% of registered voters oppose a data center near their home.

The backlash has already changed politics. Several Democrats who won seats this week campaigned as outspoken critics of AI expansion, and some are now proposing federal rules to control data center development. Texas has already clashed with OpenAI itself: the state sued the company earlier this year, a case we covered in Texas Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman.

OpenAI says the compact was in the works for months and was planned before the election results came in. Chris Lehane, the company’s chief global affairs officer, told reporters the framework has been under development since August. The company is also under real pressure to keep building: CNBC has reported that OpenAI is targeting about $600 billion in total computing spending by 2030. That kind of build-out needs land, power, and water in dozens of communities — and after this week, every one of those communities has seen what happens when residents organize against a project.

What it does not cover

The compact has real limits. First, it covers only campuses OpenAI owns and operates. OpenAI works with many partners, and large parts of its computing capacity sit in facilities owned by others. The compact does not say which current sites count, and it does not bind partners. Second, the promises are voluntary. OpenAI will check its own progress in annual public reports, but no regulator or outside body enforces the compact. If a future campus falls short, residents would have to rely on public pressure, not a legal right.

Third, the blueprint is a wish list for lawmakers, not a law. It asks state utility commissions to require large electricity customers to cover the grid costs they add, asks for public reporting on water, energy, noise, and hiring to be made compulsory, and asks for tax-incentive deals to be published with measurable commitments and a way to recover benefits if a developer falls short. All of that only happens if lawmakers act. Finally, the compact does not answer the biggest question many towns ask: whether a data center should be built there at all. It makes the terms better for communities that say yes. It does not help communities that want to say no.

What happens next

The first test will be Effingham County, Georgia, where OpenAI’s campus is already planned. Watch for the site’s own local compact and its first independent noise study, which OpenAI says will be published before the campus starts running.

The second test is whether other builders follow. OpenAI’s blueprint is openly aimed at the whole industry, and its most important proposals — making large customers pay their own grid costs, banning NDAs with officials, publishing water and energy use — would matter far more as law than as one company’s pledge. The third test is the politics: voters have shown they will use the ballot box against data centers, and newly elected officials who campaigned on the issue will be under pressure to act.

For residents near a proposed site, the practical advice is simple. Ask the developer for the same things OpenAI just promised: who pays for the power and grid upgrades, how much water the site will use, whether officials signed NDAs, and what happens if the project is delayed or canceled. Those are the questions that decide whether a data center helps a town or costs it. And if your home loses power while the grid is under strain, our guide to what to do during a power outage covers the basics. The AI race is moving fast — Google just unveiled Gemini 4 Carbon, its strongest AI yet — but the buildings that power it are going up in real neighborhoods, and the terms are now, for the first time, written down.

Sources: OpenAI, “Setting a new standard for responsible AI infrastructure” (published November 5, 2026 — read directly); Reuters, “OpenAI kicks off charm offensive to change voters’ view of data centers” (November 5, 2026); Engadget, “OpenAI says it will protect local resources and report on the impact of its data centers” (November 5, 2026); CNBC via BusinessMirror, “OpenAI to change how it handles data center efforts after outcry” (November 5, 2026). Ballot-measure counts: Data Centers on the Ballot tracker (39 of 41) and CNBC (40 of 41). Quinnipiac poll figure (73%) and $600 billion compute-spend target per CNBC reporting. Data Center Watch figure (45 projects, $88 billion) per BusinessMirror. No corrections or retractions found as of November 5, 2026, 09:20 ET.

This article was published on November 5, 2026. Commitments and policy proposals can change. Check OpenAI’s announcement for the current terms.