OpenAI pledges to cover data center power costs after election backlash

Two days after voters rejected rapid AI expansion at the polls, OpenAI published commitments to pay its own electricity bills and open its projects to community input OpenAI wants voters to know it will pay its own electric bill. On Thursday, the company reaffirmed a promise to cover the full cost of powering its data centers. The pledge came as part of a broader set of published commitments, released two days after voters at the polls roundly rejected the rapid expansion of AI. What OpenAI is promising The commitments apply to data centers that OpenAI owns and operates. For those sites, the company says it will pay the full cost of power and seek input from the communities hosting them. It also says it will publish construction plans for those projects. That is a notable shift in an industry where new facilities often surface first as rumors on a county zoning agenda. OpenAI also says it will avoid non-disclosure agreements with public officials. NDAs between developers and local governments have become a sore point, since residents often learn about massive projects only after the paperwork is signed. The company went a step further in a separate policy blueprint. In it, OpenAI e...