OpenAI Doubles Down on Data Centers After Voter Revolt

Voters delivered a clear warning about data center expansion, but OpenAI is not slowing its infrastructure push. The company plans to keep building, raising capital and working with communities as demand for artificial intelligence services drives its next stage.

That creates a powerful tension for OpenAI: the company needs more computing capacity, while voters across the country backed candidates and ballot measures that would restrict new data center development. The result is a sharper fight over who controls the future of AI infrastructure, and how much communities should have to accept in return.

Voters Reject Expansion Across Nearly Every Ballot Measure

On Tuesday, voters issued a stinging rebuke of data centers after opposition to the facilities mounted over the summer. Across 41 local ballot measures in 10 states, voters backed restrictions or rejected pro-development measures in all but one, according to an analysis of election results.

That opposition crossed both sides of the political aisle. The U.S. saw an increase of 911 data center projects between 2016 and 2026, with 571 more under construction, according to Cleanview, a data center development tracker. The scale of that growth has placed questions about power, local control and community benefits at the center of the debate.

Still, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said the election results did not change the company’s central plan. OpenAI depends on data centers to train its AI models and serve customers, and it needs infrastructure built as quickly as possible as it develops new services and models and pushes toward an IPO.

“When I think about the midterms, I need to keep thinking about how do we keep investing to meet that customer demand,” Friar said.

Friar also pointed to OpenAI’s relationships with hyperscalers and its ability to raise money as key parts of that infrastructure strategy. “It starts early with having built relationships with all of the hyperscalers, and it will continue to mean that we raise capital,” she said.

OpenAI Promises More Community Control

OpenAI responded to the election results Thursday with a policy blueprint and a series of commitments for company-owned and -operated data centers. The company said it will solicit community input around projects, publish construction plans, protect ratepayers and pay the full cost of powering its data centers.

OpenAI also said it would stay away from using non-disclosure agreements with public officials. The policy blueprint encourages policymakers to turn similar commitments into laws, creating a public standard for data center development beyond OpenAI’s own projects.

“Voters made their concerns about data centers clear in this week’s elections, and we need to listen and respond with concrete action,” OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane wrote on LinkedIn.

Lehane told reporters during a Wednesday briefing that the blueprint had been in the works since August. He said he had met with dozens of lawmakers and candidates since then, arguing that early discussions can build momentum before the new Congress returns in late January.

“What we’re doing with this blueprint is really laying out the best lessons that we have learned and committing to applying them as they go forward,” Lehane said. “This will help ensure that there is a very high floor in terms of how people move forward.”

OpenAI has announced major data center projects in Georgia and Ohio, while its plans also include a data center being built for Oracle and OpenAI in Saline, Michigan. The company said its campuses should support lasting local jobs and economic development beyond its facilities, with communities having a say in how they are built.

AI Infrastructure Push Meets a Major Funding Race

The infrastructure drive comes as OpenAI prepares for a possible public debut and seeks more funding. The company confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, and Friar said Friday that OpenAI would continue looking into a 2027 debut.

OpenAI is also in talks to raise funding at a $1.25 billion pre-money valuation. “A good CFO always raises money when she can,” Friar said, adding that the round is ongoing. The company has closed an initial $11 billion portion of the round and could raise up to an additional $9 billion in the coming weeks.

OpenAI told investors in February that it was targeting $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030. That ambition shows why data centers remain central to the company’s plans, even after voters rejected rapid expansion in nearly every local measure reviewed.

The public-market race adds another layer of pressure. Anthropic, OpenAI’s chief rival, is trying to go public first, with an aim to hit the Nasdaq in mid-November. Anthropic’s revenue in the first nine months of the year jumped 1,200% to $33.2 billion, according to its prospectus, while the company reported purchase commitments and lease agreements with an aggregate committed spend of about $895.4 billion, “substantially all of which is related to compute and infrastructure.”

For OpenAI, the message from voters is not a command to stop building. It is a demand to change how building happens. Friar said, “If the midterm means more focus on data centers and communities, we’re going to keep doing the work to get into those communities and to build trust with them.”

That effort will now face a higher standard. OpenAI wants the computing capacity to serve customers and develop new models, while communities want a real voice in projects that can reshape their power systems, land and local economies. The next phase of the AI race will be fought not only in laboratories and financial markets, but also in town halls, statehouses and neighborhoods.

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