OpenAI said it will pay the cost of electricity and infrastructure at future campuses it owns and operates, while Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said the company will keep investing to meet customer demand.
Friar made the remarks in a CNBC interview with Sara Eisen on Friday, Nov. 6. She said OpenAI’s business grew 70% quarter over quarter in Q3, while its enterprise business doubled over the period. Friar also said the company’s ability to obtain computing resources depends in part on maintaining ties with host communities.
OpenAI’s Nov. 5 national compact establishes a framework for local agreements at each future campus it owns and operates. The company said residents would be involved early enough to shape plans. OpenAI said it would release building plans and independent noise assessments before operations start, update them each year, and report annually on its performance.
OpenAI committed to pay the full cost of electricity used by the campuses and the infrastructure needed to serve them. It also said public officials would not be asked to sign nondisclosure agreements, except where needed to protect legitimate security information, trade secrets, or proprietary or competitively sensitive information.
The compact was released alongside a policy blueprint in which OpenAI calls on policymakers to require large electricity users to cover the grid costs they add. OpenAI says its broader U.S. computing expansion could lower the cost of delivering AI and make its tools available to more people.
The company said the national compact builds on commitments announced in January and later steps in Georgia and Ohio. The announcement did not name new campus locations or set capacity targets or a construction schedule.
