OpenAI published its National Community Compact on November 5, 2026. For future compute campuses it owns and operates, the company says it will not require public officials to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) as a condition of discussion or negotiation. The pledge names limited exceptions and sits alongside separate commitments on public reporting, energy costs and community impacts.
What OpenAI’s NDA pledge covers
The commitment applies to future campuses that OpenAI both owns and operates. It concerns requiring public officials to sign an NDA as a condition of discussing or negotiating a project. OpenAI says narrow protections may still cover legitimate security information, trade secrets, and proprietary or competitively sensitive information. The National Community Compact names those categories but does not define their boundaries in more detail.
The Compact is separate from a proposed industry policy
The Compact sets out OpenAI’s commitments for its own future campuses. A separate document, the Compute Campus Policy Blueprint, asks federal, state and local policymakers to establish related rules for the wider data-center industry. OpenAI’s announcement of the two documents presents the Blueprint as a proposal to policymakers, not as a rule that already binds other operators.
What communities are promised
OpenAI says each covered campus will have a locally tailored compact and annual public progress reports. Its commitments also include construction plans, reporting on water use by location and on-site electricity use, and independent noise studies before operations begin and annually afterward. The studies are to measure sound at property boundaries and in immediately neighboring areas, with results made public.
The Compact also promises workforce strategies and reporting on hiring and apprenticeships. OpenAI says local hiring goals will depend on labor-market conditions in each area. For water, the company says it will develop plans for each campus and prioritize closed-loop or low-water cooling.
The pledge gives communities concrete future checkpoints: site-level utility information, published noise studies and annual progress reports.
Energy costs and grid commitments
OpenAI says it will pay the full cost of electricity used by its campuses and the incremental infrastructure costs required to serve them. Before major spending, it also promises financial assurances intended to protect other customers if a project is delayed, reduced or canceled.
The Compact describes a planned demand-response arrangement for a campus in Effingham County, Georgia. During periods of high demand, Georgia Power could reduce electricity deliveries to the planned site by up to 1,000 megawatts. The document presents this as a planned arrangement, with participation dependent on local conditions, technical feasibility and utility interest.
