OpenAI pledges to cover power and grid costs for its data centers

OpenAI published what it called the National Community Compact and the AI Campus Policy Blueprint, pledging that data centers it owns in the future will bear the full costs of electricity and grid infrastructure.

The company said it would provide financial guarantees and disclose water and energy use at the level of each site, and would stop requesting non-disclosure agreements from public officials except in narrow cases related to security and trade secrets.

OpenAI proposed industry-wide utility tariffs for large loads, in an attempt to address the pressure data centers place on electricity grids.

These pledges come after midterm election votes in which voters rejected new data center projects in 40 of 41 ballot initiatives, according to The Decoder.

What do these terms mean?

Data centers: Facilities containing thousands of servers that run digital services and consume large amounts of electricity and water.

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA): An agreement that prevents one party from sharing certain information with a third party.

Utility tariffs: The prices set by electricity and water companies for using their services.

Large loads: Consumers that demand huge amounts of electricity at once, such as data centers and factories.

Grid infrastructure: The power lines, stations and systems that transmit energy to users.