OpenAI is trying to win local support for data centres. It will drop non-disclosure agreements with public officials and share plans on traffic, noise and lighting.

The company says data centres can bring jobs and local value. OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane said hardware must be updated every three to five years, and one Ohio site may create 2,500 jobs.

Voters and investors turned against data centres in the US midterms. Democrats won key races and most ballot measures failed, raising fears of tighter rules, higher costs and slower building.

AI generated SAN FRANCISCO – Stunning victories by Democrats in US midterm elections this week have been interpreted by many as Americans repudiating tech industry plans to build data centres across the country. OpenAI has now embarked on new strategies to change their minds.

The AI lab on Nov 5 laid out policies – in the works since August – intended to help the company build more trust with local communities and convince them that data centres will benefit them.

OpenAI said it will no longer use non-disclosure agreements with public officials when negotiating or discussing future sites, although proprietary information would still be under wraps. It will also give residents access to construction plans and their potential effect on traffic, noise and lighting.

OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane also said that these centres would be a source of ongoing jobs because the hardware within the data centre would need to be updated every three to five years.

“These projects are not the types of data centres that people have historically thought about, which are some version of a black box in a pasture that did very little in terms of the economic utility for the communities they were in,” he told reporters.

One OpenAI facility in southern Ohio is expected to create 2,500 long-term jobs with an average annual salary of US$80,000 (S$102,000), he said.

Partners such as Oracle are building and own much of OpenAI’s data centre infrastructure, with the capacity dedicated to the start-up.

Data centre opponents make big gains In some of the biggest upsets of the elections, Democrats flipped governorships in Texas, Georgia and Ohio with candidates who have promised to pause new data centre permits and tighten construction rules.

And of the 41 data centre-related ballot measures voted on this week, all but one went against data centres, according to Ballotpedia.

Shares of data centre operators and power companies that have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the AI building boom also tumbled on Nov 4 as investors bet the Democratic sweep could bring tougher permitting, higher costs and a slower pace of construction.

“We need to do a better job of really communicating to people, to local communities, about why data centres can be beneficial to them,” OpenAI president Greg Brockman said at a separate event on Nov 4.

OpenAI officials, along with many of their peers in tech, have spent the last two years trying to build ties with the administration of US President Donald Trump in hopes of shaping federal policy around AI.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman donated US$1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee and later attended Trump’s second inauguration. In 2025, Brockman donated US$25 million in his personal capacity to a Trump super PAC.

When asked about how the company would address scepticism from some Democrats, Lehane pointed to his extensive experience in the party. During the Clinton administration, he served as a top lawyer and spokesperson and he was also press secretary for Vice-President Al Gore when he made his run for president.