OpenAI Pledges 3.2 GW Data Center in Georgia With $80M Community Fund

OpenAI will contract with Georgia Power Company for 3.2 gigawatts of electricity to supply a new data center campus in Effingham County, Georgia, with power delivered in phases between 2028 and 2032. The company announced the project, called Project Camellia, in a statement outlining community commitments that include an $80 million community benefits fund, protections against rate increases for residential customers, and an annual independent audit.

The scale of the power contract places Project Camellia among the largest single-customer data center commitments in the United States, and it lands at a moment when local resistance to hyperscale AI infrastructure is intensifying across the country. Communities from Ohio to Virginia have pushed back against data center developments over electricity costs, water consumption, and land use. OpenAI's announcement reads, in large part, as a preemptive answer to those concerns.

The four commitments

OpenAI structured its announcement around four commitments. The first addresses the most politically charged issue in data center siting: who pays.

"Electricity rates will not go up for residents because of this project," the company stated. "Georgia families will not subsidize this project. OpenAI will pay the full cost of the infrastructure and electric-service costs required to serve it."

The company cited Georgia Public Service Commission rules that prevent those costs from being passed on to existing ratepayers. OpenAI also said Project Camellia will be one of the first data centers designed to proactively reduce its own power consumption during periods of high demand, before residential customers are affected, in order to support the reliability of Georgia Power's electric system.

The second commitment covers water use. The project will use a closed-loop water system, which OpenAI described as working "like a car radiator," recirculating water rather than continuously withdrawing and discharging it. The company said ongoing water needs will be limited to ordinary workplace use — restrooms, kitchens, sanitation, and maintenance — comparable to an office building with the same number of employees, and that water will not be diverted from local communities.

Money for schools, students, and services

The third commitment is the financial one. OpenAI will provide $80 million in community benefits over the life of the project, directed toward local priorities including schools, public safety, health care, utilities, workforce training, housing, veterans' services, and support for small businesses and working families. The company said this commitment is separate from projected tax revenue.

OpenAI expects to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local tax revenue and to become the largest taxpayer in the county. The project is expected to create thousands of construction and permanent on-site jobs, with priority given to local contractors and businesses.

On top of the $80 million, OpenAI will make up to $71 million in credits for Codex available to eligible Georgia college, community college, and technical school students. Codex is OpenAI's agentic coding tool, now available within ChatGPT, that helps people build software and complete technical projects. Eligible students will receive $100 in credits through their ChatGPT accounts to extend their use of Codex and develop practical skills for careers in engineering, manufacturing, health care, education, entrepreneurship, and the skilled trades.

The fourth commitment is accountability. An annual publicly available audit, conducted by an independent firm, will be released to verify the project meets its commitments.

A public process, and a compact

OpenAI said it has already been meeting with state and local officials, community leaders, schools, and regional partners to gather feedback. On Thursday, July 23, the company will hold a public open house where residents can meet the project team and ask questions.

Input from the open house and continued conversations with residents, officials, schools, businesses, and community organizations will shape what OpenAI calls a Georgia Community Compact, designed to translate community priorities into specific commitments and accountability measures as the project develops.

"We believe showing up early is the right way to build trust," the company said, while acknowledging that the project remains in its early stages. OpenAI said significant work remains on infrastructure, project phasing, design, financing, and the operating model, and that it intends to keep engaging with local communities, government, workforce organizations, and infrastructure and financing partners as those details are worked out.

The site and the rationale

The proposed site sits within the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub, a pre-existing industrially zoned warehouse project. OpenAI argued the data center will generate materially less traffic than a warehouse development on the same site would, use less water, produce stronger long-term tax revenue, and support more durable on-site employment.

The company framed the project within its broader argument for domestic AI infrastructure. Computing infrastructure, OpenAI said, is one of the main factors determining how quickly AI improves, how reliably it works, and how broadly it can be used. Building that infrastructure in the United States, the company argued, strengthens domestic industry, creates jobs, and ensures American communities participate in the economic opportunity created by AI. Project Camellia would be entirely privately funded.

OpenAI pointed to Abilene, Texas, where its first campus is operating at scale, training frontier models, and supporting thousands of jobs, as evidence of that potential.

Why the stakes are high

The announcement arrives amid a national debate over the costs of the AI buildout. Utilities in several states are revising demand forecasts upward as data center construction accelerates, and regulators and consumer advocates have raised concerns that residential ratepayers could absorb infrastructure costs if allocations are not structured carefully. Water-intensive cooling systems have drawn similar scrutiny in drought-prone regions.

OpenAI's Effingham County commitments — full cost payment, closed-loop cooling, demand reduction during peak periods, and independent audits — map directly onto those contested points. Whether the Georgia Community Compact process and the annual audits will satisfy residents remains to be seen, but the structure OpenAI has proposed offers a template that other AI developers facing community opposition may soon be pressed to match. The company said it will share more information as plans develop, with details posted at projectcamellia.com.