OpenAI pledged to pay every dollar of power and grid cost at campuses it owns.

Reported, not verified: openai.com returned a client error on every attempt from here, as it did yesterday, so we could not read either document. The account rests on Unite.AI, MLex and Android Headlines, which agree on the commitments, places and figures. The dated event that could change this: whether the Effingham and Pike commitments appear in a county or utility filing, by December 5, 2026.

OpenAI published 2 documents on Thursday November 5, 2026: a National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint. Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer, is quoted saying the pledges follow months of talks with local candidates and grid operators. The compact is a national baseline, tailored locally at each future campus OpenAI owns and operates. Reported commitments: pay for the electricity it uses and the infrastructure needed to serve its sites; give financial assurances before major spending, protecting other customers if a project is delayed, reduced or cancelled; give utilities realistic power forecasts; publish site plans for traffic, noise and lighting; commission independent noise studies before operations and annually after; disclose site-level water and electricity use; adopt a water plan prioritising closed-loop or low-water cooling; not require public officials to sign nondisclosure agreements, keeping narrow confidentiality for security information and trade secrets; publish workforce strategies; set local hiring goals where labour markets allow; keep a local contact; and report publicly each year. Two named packages: 80 million dollars for Effingham County, Georgia, including 4.8 million dollars for free school meals for all 14,000 county students and 2 million dollars for a park; and 6 million dollars jointly with SB Energy for childcare in Pike County, Ohio. The blueprint asks state utility commissions for large-load tariffs requiring major electricity users to pay the incremental grid costs they cause, with public cost allocation, and for voluntary demand-flexibility programmes. Federally it asks faster permitting, clarified Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to expedite connections, reinstated technology-neutral clean electricity incentives, and clawbacks on discretionary incentives. Industry-wide it asks that comparable requirements apply to all developers. Reported context: Georgia Power may cut deliveries to the Effingham campus by up to 1,000 megawatts at peak, and OpenAI contracts there for 3.2 gigawatts from 2028 to 2032. Not established: the text itself, and whether any state adopts the tariffs.

1. Aug 31

   A reported warrants deal puts SB Energy's power behind an AI buildout. Edition 005. SB Energy is now the named partner on the Pike County childcare money.

2. Sep 16

   The House votes 417 to 3 to make data centres pay for the power lines built to serve them. Edition 024. The blueprint asks states for the same.

3. Oct 27

   A United Kingdom group counts who ministers met about data centres. Environmental groups: zero. Edition 064, the nondisclosure problem from the other side.

4. Nov 3

   Voters in 10 states decide 41 data centre measures, and 28 would limit them. Edition 072. Goldman economists are reported putting roughly 45% of planned United States expansion at risk.

5. Nov 5

   OpenAI publishes the compact and the blueprint, with 80 million dollars named for Effingham County, Georgia and 6 million dollars for Pike County, Ohio.