Following a blue wave that put Democrats in control of the next Congress and demonstrated Americans’ discontent with the AI buildout, OpenAI is rolling out new commitments governing how it develops data centers.
The company behind ChatGPT announced Thursday that it will limit the controversial practice of using nondisclosure agreements with public officials and cover the electricity and energy infrastructure costs of future data centers it owns and operates.
The promises are part of OpenAI’s new National Community Compact, a framework outlining how the company plans to work with locals in places where it builds data centers. The framework also includes pledges to be more transparent about construction plans and noise levels, develop water-use plans tailored to each community, and invest in local services such as childcare, education, healthcare, and transportation.
OpenAI’s new commitments come just two days after Tuesday’s midterm elections, in which data centers were a major political issue. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republicans, particularly President Donald Trump, have largely embraced AI, arguing that the technology is critical to the economy and national security, especially as the U.S. competes with China. Democrats, meanwhile, have, to a limited extent, pushed for tougher AI regulations, with some calling for a pause on new data center construction.
But Tuesday’s results dealt a major blow to the AI industry. Democrats took control of both the House and Senate, despite Elon Musk spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help elect Republicans. His efforts included backing candidates in his home state of Texas, where Democrat James Talarico defeated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Democrats also won at least 22 of the 36 gubernatorial races, flipping Republican-held seats in Texas and Georgia. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa became the first Democrat elected governor since 1990. Both Hinojosa and Georgia’s incoming governor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, have called for pausing data center development.
Local communities across the country also passed measures to ban, pause, or restrict new data centers.
And it didn’t take long on election night for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to acknowledge the need for some limits on the development of AI. “People should not cede control of the future to superintelligence, and that requirement should ultimately constrain AI progress,” Altman wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.
OpenAI also released its Compute Campus Policy Blueprint on Thursday, calling for new rules that would require data center developers to cover electricity costs, be more transparent, and work with local communities.
But OpenAI isn’t just focused on data centers. The company is already looking ahead to the 2028 presidential election and trying to shape the debate over broader AI policy.
OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane published an essay Wednesday predicting that AI will be the “number-one issue of the 2028 presidential election” and making the case for policies that seem to address public concerns while allowing AI development to continue full steam ahead.
Lehane compared the AI boom to the Industrial Revolution and argued that the country needs its own version of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to address the changes brought by the technology.
“The challenge for presidential candidates will be to offer an affirmative, big idea that puts people back in control – not by shielding them from AI but by helping them use it to reclaim agency over their lives,” the exec wrote. Lehane’s vision of the future obviously involves massive profits for OpenAI and bears little resemblance to FDR’s New Deal. But it at least gives us an idea of the kind of messaging tech giants are thinking about as they scramble to adjust to a very different playing field.
