Georgia residents sue OpenAI under racketeering law, alleging a secret deal behind its $20 billion data center

OpenAI's planned $20 billion data center campus outside Savannah, Georgia, now faces a third lawsuit. This one names OpenAI itself and accuses it, along with local officials, of racketeering.

Three Effingham County residents filed the complaint on November 6 in the county's state court. Their lawyers announced it on November 9. The target is Project Camellia, a campus of about 1,440 acres set to draw up to 3.2 gigawatts from Georgia Power, phased in between 2028 and 2032.

Why it matters: the case is not about AI, water or electricity bills. It is about how the deal was done. The suit attacks the kind of confidentiality agreements, vaguely worded meeting agendas and closed-door discussions used to secure land before neighbors find out. If Georgia courts let fraud and racketeering claims proceed over that approach, the cost and time of landing AI sites could rise well beyond one county.

What the residents claim

The 44-page complaint lists 11 counts, including fraudulent concealment, civil conspiracy and a violation of Georgia's civil racketeering law. The racketeering count names OpenAI's operating company, its land-holding affiliate Octans GA, a private land agent, the county manager, the development authority's CEO and two county commissioners.

That count carries the most financial weight, because Georgia's law allows triple damages. Several officials are sued in their personal capacity as well as their official roles.

The timeline is the heart of the case. The suit says the county development authority's CEO signed a nondisclosure agreement with OpenAI on October 27, 2025. That was about nine months before the project was announced in July 2026. The complaint says the agreements were then circulated to county officials, including the county manager.

According to the complaint, land purchase agreements were signed in May and July 2026 through the authority's private agent, before any public vote. On July 21, the authority approved the deal after more than an hour in closed session, the suit says. The agenda described the item only as "Project Gateway." A deed transferred the land three days later.

On August 4, commissioners adopted a zoning change allowing data centers on industrial land. The residents say it skipped two required public hearings. The complaint, as reported by WTOC, quotes one authority director as saying: "We're not a democracy."

The plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial, with no dollar figure named. They say offers on nearby homes have fallen or been withdrawn. Notably, this suit does not ask the court to stop the project.

What the evidence does and doesn't show yet

These are allegations, not findings. The case is civil, and no one has been charged with a crime. The local Effingham Herald notes that the racketeering count cites false statements, perjury and forgery. But the complaint does not identify specific sworn testimony or a particular forged document. That gap could matter early, when defendants ask the court to dismiss.

Confidentiality agreements are not illegal on their own. Georgia's open-meetings law generally requires public bodies to meet openly with advance notice, but it has exceptions, including some for real estate. A court will decide whether the authority stayed inside them.

The county says it does not comment on pending litigation. None of the outlets covering the new suit reported a response from OpenAI.

OpenAI has defended the project with commitments: $80 million in community benefits, a closed-loop cooling system to limit water use, annual independent audits, and paying the full cost of its grid connection. The county cites about 400 permanent jobs. Opponents counter that the land, the zoning and nearly $900 million in tax breaks (a figure from a separate lawsuit's filing) were locked in before residents could weigh in.

The bigger near-term risk sits in another courtroom

For OpenAI's schedule, a separate case may matter more. In September the Southern Environmental Law Center sued on behalf of a coastal advocacy group, One Hundred Miles, and five residents. That suit asks a Superior Court judge to declare the authority's approval void and cancel the land transfer documents.

On October 27, those plaintiffs asked for summary judgment, meaning a ruling without a trial. Defendants' response to that suit's original complaint is due November 12. A first suit, filed in September by the same three residents behind the new case, seeks to overturn the zoning change.

There is also a political front. On November 3, county commissioners unanimously postponed a vote on the project's site plan. The developer would not commit on the spot to a 20-foot earth barrier shielding nearby homes, and commissioners raised questions about wetlands and water. The plan returns on November 17.

The developer has already scaled back. The campus is now six computing buildings, down from 30 in earlier plans, WTOC reports, and projected water use has fallen from 100,000 to 30,000 gallons a day.

Effingham is not unusual. Data Center Watch, which tracks local opposition, counted 45 US AI data center projects worth $68 billion blocked or delayed from April to June 2026. That was more than half of the large developments in that period.

The takeaway for investors and buyers of AI computing capacity: a signed power contract and a land deed are not the finish line. The secrecy that speeds up site selection can now produce lawsuits naming both the company and local officials personally. If that exposure makes officials wary of signing confidentiality agreements, the next deal may take longer to close.