(Bloomberg) -- OpenAI said it will avoid nondisclosure agreements when it negotiates data center deals and ensure residents don't pay for the electricity to power those projects, part of a framework the company believes should be adopted into laws governing the expansion of artificial intelligence.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The series of commitments was released Thursday, just two days after voters across the US backed candidates at all levels of government who support curbs on data centers and greater oversight of AI.
In a so-called National Community Compact, the company pledges to provide clear data about the potential community impacts of issues including noise, water and energy use. OpenAI also promised to reduce power usage during peak times, send electricity back to the grid and set local hiring goals, assuming the local workforce allows for it. The AI lab will also publicly report on its progress toward keeping these commitments.
OpenAI said it had planned the announcement prior to the election returns and has been working on it for months. It combines some measures the AI research lab has already announced in its data center projects in areas such as Georgia and adds others that stem from conversations with residents and officials in Georgia, Ohio, Texas and other states, said Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer.
"Certainly a number of them are places that have been particularly impacted by the globalization of the last 20, 30 years, and for a lot of really good reasons these folks have been really burned by companies and others in the past," Lehane said.
Voters across the US gave the data center boom a clear thumbs down Tuesday night. Gina Hinojosa, elected on Tuesday as the first Democratic governor in Texas in more than three decades, has called for an immediate moratorium on data center development. Other Democratic gubernatorial victories from Georgia to Ohio and Pennsylvania could leave half of proposed AI data center additions across the US vulnerable to stricter local scrutiny and pushback. At least 45 projects valued at $88 billion were disrupted in some fashion by local opposition in the second quarter of 2026, according to Data Center Watch, a research group.