OpenAI promises to pay its own power bills, but only at data centers it owns and runs

OpenAI published a set of promises on Thursday aimed at winning back the towns it needs for its expansion. It says it will pay the full cost of the electricity and grid upgrades its data centers require. It will stop asking public officials to sign nondisclosure agreements during site talks. And it wants lawmakers to make similar rules mandatory for the whole industry.

For investors and partners, the fine print matters more than the headline. The document, called the National Community Compact, applies only to future campuses OpenAI itself owns and operates. Partners such as Oracle build and own much of the capacity dedicated to OpenAI, Reuters reported. Those sites appear to fall outside the pledge.

The timing is hard to miss. The compact landed two days after midterm elections in which voters went against data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures, according to Ballotpedia figures cited by Reuters and Fortune. OpenAI told Bloomberg it had planned the announcement before the election results came in, and Reuters reported the work had been under way since August.

What OpenAI is actually promising

The compact covers power, water, disclosure and jobs. On power, OpenAI says it will pay for its electricity plus the extra grid equipment needed to serve it. Before major spending begins, it will post financial assurances. These are guarantees meant to protect other utility customers if a project is delayed, shrunk or canceled, according to Fortune and 24/7 Wall St.

OpenAI also promises to cut power use when demand on the grid peaks. It will publish water and electricity use for each site and commission independent noise studies. It will favor cooling systems that recirculate water in a sealed loop instead of consuming it. Each owned campus gets its own local agreement, and OpenAI says it will publicly report its progress.

The secrecy pledge has exceptions. OpenAI keeps what it calls narrow protections for security information, trade secrets and competitively sensitive material, The Decoder and Fortune reported. How broadly OpenAI uses those exceptions will decide how much the promise is worth.

Local spending remains small next to project budgets. OpenAI cites $80 million in commitments beyond taxes in Effingham County, Georgia, including $4.8 million for free school meals, Fortune reported. The campus there could cost more than $30 billion at full size, according to an OpenAI executive quoted by The Next Web. The Decoder called such payments barely more than symbolic next to the project costs.

The capacity the pledge does not reach

OpenAI's buildout runs heavily through other companies' balance sheets. OpenAI reportedly will pay Oracle about $30 billion a year under a 4.5-gigawatt deal, and Oracle supplies capacity for OpenAI's Stargate program, including the site in Abilene, Texas, 24/7 Wall St reported. In Ohio, SB Energy builds, owns and operates a large campus that OpenAI leases, according to 24/7 Wall St. In Port Washington, Wisconsin, a $15 billion campus is being built with Oracle and Vantage, according to Data Centre Central.

The Wisconsin project shows the gap. A former Republican legislative aide tried to recruit a writer to post paid social media support for the campus, and applicants had to sign a nondisclosure agreement before applying, Wisconsin Watch reported, as summarized by Data Centre Central. Vantage said its partnerships are disclosed. OpenAI's new rule covers secrecy deals with public officials at sites it owns. It would not appear to reach that arrangement.

OpenAI has not said whether leased campuses or joint ventures will get the same treatment. That is the first thing partners and investors should watch. If OpenAI extends the terms, landlords such as Oracle could face pressure to pay grid costs and post guarantees themselves. Oracle is already stretched: it reported negative free cash flow of $5.4 billion in its fiscal first quarter, 24/7 Wall St noted.

Why the biggest players may welcome mandatory rules

A second document, the Compute Campus Policy Blueprint, asks policymakers and utility regulators to require large power users to cover the grid costs they add. That could weigh most on smaller developers, 24/7 Wall St noted. Companies with deep cash reserves can post guarantees and pay for substations. Builders that rely on borrowed money often cannot.

The largest tech companies have already moved this way. Microsoft pledged in January to pay for power and local grid upgrades for its AI data centers. Alphabet said it would cover all power costs at its Wyoming site. Mandatory rules could turn a cost the giants already absorb into a hurdle for smaller rivals, 24/7 Wall St argued.

Outside experts doubt promises alone will rebuild trust. Mark MacCarthy, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Fortune that state lawmakers and regulators should make sure households do not end up paying data centers' power costs. "There's no trust left," he said. Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer, conceded to Bloomberg that some OpenAI projects could be delayed.

The political risk is concrete. Texas governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, who takes office in January, has called for a moratorium on new data centers. Democrats also won governorships in Georgia and Ohio, both home to major OpenAI projects. Data Center Watch, a research group that tracks local opposition, counted at least 45 projects worth about $68 billion disrupted in the second quarter alone.

For companies buying AI computing, the practical question is cost and timing. Paying for grid upgrades, posting guarantees and cutting power at peak hours all add expense and can slow delivery. Whether those costs land on OpenAI, its landlords or its customers is still unanswered.