OpenAI Ends NDAs With Officials After Voters Reject AI Data Centers

OpenAI on Thursday published a new OpenAI data center policy package — a National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint — two days after voters across multiple states rejected most local measures that would have eased or expanded AI data center development. For campuses the company owns and operates, OpenAI pledged to solicit community input, publish construction plans, skip non-disclosure agreements with public officials except for narrow security and trade-secret cases, and pay the full cost of electricity and related infrastructure so households are not stuck with the bill.

Sources: Ballotpedia (as of Nov. 4, 2026); CNBC; OpenAI. The $600 billion figure is what OpenAI told investors in February, per CNBC.

What OpenAI committed to at its own campuses

In a post titled “Setting a new standard for responsible AI infrastructure,” OpenAI said every future compute campus it owns and operates will have a local compact. Residents are supposed to get early input that can still change plans, a local point of contact for the life of the campus, and annual public reporting on how the company is meeting its promises.

The common commitments, as OpenAI listed them, include:

• Paying its own way on energy and infrastructure, covering the full cost of electricity and new infrastructure needed to serve the site, plus financial assurances so other utility customers are protected if a project is delayed, reduced or canceled.
• Protecting local resources and publishing impacts, including a water plan that prioritizes closed-loop or low-water cooling, site-level water and electricity use, construction plans, and independent noise studies before operations begin and every year after.
• Ending NDAs with public officials, aside from narrow protections for legitimate security information, trade secrets, or competitively sensitive information.
• Local jobs and community investments, with published job expectations, work with unions and training providers, annual hiring and apprenticeship reports, and sustained investments shaped by residents’ priorities.

Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, told reporters in a Wednesday briefing that the blueprint gathers lessons the company has learned and commits the firm to apply them going forward, according to CNBC. He said the policy work has been underway since August and that he has met with dozens of lawmakers and candidates since then. CNBC also noted that Meta, Microsoft, Google and Anthropic have outlined several similar commitments.

OpenAI framed the Thursday package as building on Stargate Community commitments announced in January and on project-level pledges in Georgia and Ohio. In Effingham County, Georgia, the company has highlighted a $4.8 million grant for free school meals for about 14,000 students. In Pike County, Ohio, OpenAI and SB Energy jointly committed $6 million toward childcare after families flagged it as a priority, OpenAI said.

By the numbers: midterm ballot rebuke

The timing is not subtle. On Nov. 3, local voters weighed dozens of data-center measures. CNBC, citing Ballotpedia and its own results roundup, reported 41 local ballot measures across 10 states on Election Day, with voters backing restrictions or rejecting pro-development measures in all but one called contest — Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected added industrial review requirements.

Ballotpedia’s broader 2026 tracker, updated as of Nov. 4, shows a still starker scorecard for the year: of 47 decided data-center-related measures, majorities favored greater limits in 46 cases (98%), and only Harwood went the other way. Ohio alone accounted for 21 of 50 measures Ballotpedia has tracked for the year. The Boston Report previously covered early Election Night tallies showing voters rejecting data centers in nearly every called measure.

Percentages below are TBR calculations from Ballotpedia’s Nov. 4 decided-measure totals (46 limiting ÷ 47 decided = 98%; 1 favoring ÷ 47 = 2%).

Policy blueprint aims at lawmakers, not just OpenAI

Beyond its own campuses, OpenAI’s blueprint asks federal, state and local policymakers to write similar rules into law so protections do not depend on which company shows up. The company urged state utility commissions to require large electricity customers to cover the costs they add to the grid and to protect other customers if a project falls through. It also called for public reporting on water, energy, noise and hiring; narrow limits on NDAs with public officials; and public terms for tax incentives, with clawbacks if developers miss measurable commitments.

On the grid side, OpenAI pointed again to its Effingham County plans with Georgia Power, where the company says the utility can reduce power delivered to the campus by up to 1,000 megawatts during high-demand periods — a flexibility pitch the company has branded under its Grid Protectors program. OpenAI has also said it is contracting for 3.2 gigawatts from Georgia Power in phases between 2028 and 2032 for that project, and that it will provide $80 million in community benefits there over the life of the campus, separate from tax revenue.

AI companies need those campuses to train and serve models. CNBC reported that OpenAI told investors in February it is targeting $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030 and has announced large projects in Georgia and Ohio. Opposition over the summer, CNBC said, spanned both parties as residents worried about utility bills, environmental impacts and jobs.

What comes next

Voluntary company pledges are not statutes. OpenAI’s compact applies to campuses it owns and operates; leased or partner-run facilities are outside that framing unless contracts say otherwise. Lehane told reporters the midterm conversations should feed work ahead of a new Congress returning in late January, per CNBC.

For communities that just voted to restrict or ban large facilities, the practical test will be whether state utility rules, local zoning and any federal grid legislation match the floor OpenAI is advertising — and whether rival developers adopt the same transparency and ratepayer rules without waiting for a statute.

Sources

• CNBC — OpenAI pledges to halt NDAs in new data center policy proposal after election rebuke (Nov. 5, 2026)
• OpenAI — Setting a new standard for responsible AI infrastructure (Nov. 5, 2026)
• Ballotpedia — Data center-related ballot measures, 2026
• CNBC — Voters rebuff data centers in every ballot measure except one (Nov. 4, 2026)
• OpenAI — Introducing the Grid Protectors Program