Key facts
- OpenAI said it will no longer use non-disclosure agreements with public officials when negotiating or discussing future sites.
- OpenAI said proprietary information would still be kept under wraps despite the change.
- Residents will get access to construction plans and their potential effect on traffic, noise and lighting, OpenAI said.
- Chris Lehane said data center hardware needs updating every three to five years, which he said supports ongoing jobs.
- Lehane said one OpenAI facility in southern Ohio is expected to create 2,500 long-term jobs at an average annual salary of $80,000.
- Partners such as Oracle build and own much of OpenAI's data center infrastructure, with capacity dedicated to the startup.
OpenAI said on November 5 that it will stop using non-disclosure agreements with public officials when negotiating or discussing future data center sites, though it said proprietary information would still be kept under wraps. The AI lab also said residents would get access to construction plans and their potential effect on traffic, noise and lighting. It said the policies had been in the works since August.
The announcement followed midterm elections in the week before November 5 in which Democrats flipped governorships in Texas, Georgia and Ohio with candidates who promised to pause new data center permits and tighten construction rules. Of 41 data center-related ballot measures voted on, all but one went against data centers, according to Ballotpedia. Shares of data center operators and power companies fell on Wednesday, November 4, as investors bet the results could bring tougher permitting, higher costs and a slower pace of construction.
OpenAI's chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, told reporters the centers would be a source of ongoing jobs because the hardware inside would need updating every three to five years. "These projects are not the types of data centers that people have historically thought about, which are some version of a black box in a pasture that did very little in terms of the economic utility for the communities they were in," he said. He said one OpenAI facility in southern Ohio is expected to create 2,500 long-term jobs with an average annual salary of $80,000.
OpenAI President Greg Brockman said at a separate event on Wednesday, November 4: "We need to do a better job of really communicating to people, to local communities, about why data centers can be beneficial to them." Partners such as Oracle build and own much of OpenAI's data center infrastructure, with the capacity dedicated to the startup.
OpenAI officials, along with many peers in tech, have spent the last two years trying to build ties with the administration of US President Donald Trump in hopes of shaping federal AI policy. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee and later attended Trump's second inauguration. Last year, Brockman donated $25 million in his personal capacity to a Trump super PAC. Asked how the company would address skepticism from some Democrats, Lehane pointed to his experience in the party, including serving as a top lawyer and spokesperson during the Clinton administration and as press secretary for Vice President Al Gore during his presidential run.