People hate data centers. They’re loud, resource-hungry eyesores that are so profoundly unpopular they have managed to achieve the near-impossible in today’s polarized political landscape: genuine bipartisan opposition. But what about “compute campuses”? Those sound lovely, right?
OpenAI seems to be gambling that a quiet rebrand could be all it takes to defuse the growing political backlash that threatens to derail the infrastructure fueling the AI boom.
OpenAI debuted the new terminology on Monday in an announcement launching its new “Grid Protectors Program.” The initiative, starting with an upcoming site in Effingham County, Georgia, aims to address concerns about the strain its sprawling AI infrastructure places on local power grids, particularly during extreme weather and emergencies. It’s a familiar data center problem. Yet in the roughly 900 word announcement, the term “data center” appeared just twice, outnumbered by “compute campus.”
The initiative addresses worries about electricity use and the prospect of consumers being left to foot the bill for the AI buildout. OpenAI promises to “pay the costs we create” and “help communities keep the lights on.” Its two mentions of “data center” reinforce the connection: One references US data center capacity and electricity consumption, while the other directly compares OpenAI’s new “compute facilities” with “data centers built even a few years ago.” They’re “much different,” OpenAI says, with the new campuses allowing the company to be rather vaguely “flexible in our power demand.”
The terminology appears to be new for OpenAI. A quick search of its website turned up no previous uses of the term. The timing is noteworthy, too. On Monday, Axios reported that OpenAI was planning to rebrand data centers as “AI compute campuses” as part of a policy and PR push after Tuesday’s midterms, anticipating a more hostile regulatory environment if Democrats make gains. Apparently, the rebrand couldn’t wait.
Critics, however, aren’t buying it. A new name does nothing to lessen data centers’ environmental footprint, ease the burdens they place on local resources, or address the concerns of nearby residents. Activist groups who spoke to The Verge see the rebrand as a fairly transparent attempt to break free from an increasingly toxic label without meaningfully tackling what made it toxic to begin with. It fits within a broader lobbying push by Big Tech to counter souring public sentiment.
“OpenAI is clearly responding to the unpopularity of data centers,” said Holly Elmore, founder and executive director of PauseAI US, a grassroots group campaigning to pause AI development.
“Rebranding them ‘compute campuses’ may fool listeners once or twice but it’s not the name ‘data center’ that is unpopular — it’s the giant, polluting construction projects that apparently threatened to turn off people’s heat in the winter,” Elmore told The Verge in an email, calling OpenAI’s electricity announcement “woefully tone deaf.”
“Communities that despise them will not be fooled into thinking they have transformed into something else.”
Abre’ Conner, director of the NAACP’s Center for Environmental and Climate Justice, was similarly unimpressed. “This feels like an empty solution to an existing issue, which is that the data center infrastructure causes real harm,” she told The Verge. “Changing the name does not fix the problem and makes it seem like people’s health and our environment are public relations problems not environmental and climate concerns.”
Conner argued that OpenAI should focus on changing its practices, rather than what it calls data centers. “At a time when companies could utilize their resources to develop new models, create more transparency, and slow the infrastructure development, their solution is to just change their name.”
Elmore agreed, suggesting the data center rebrand was an attempt by OpenAI to keep up with its rival Anthropic, but that it isn’t “spinning it nearly as well.” Earlier this year, Anthropic pledged to cover 100 percent of the upgrades needed to connect its data centers to power grids, including those that would normally be passed onto consumers. The company has also promised to invest billions of dollars in community projects developed with local leaders, protect local water supplies, and refrain from asking public officials to sign NDAs — a practice that has recently come under scrutiny. Anthropic said those commitments apply to both leased and owned data centers. Leased facilities currently make up most of its infrastructure, though its recent S-1 filing ahead of its IPO indicates the company wants to aggressively build its own, too, with many relying on gas.
OpenAI did not respond to The Verge’s request for comment about its decision to change nomenclature, its motivations for doing so, or whether doing so is an attempt to distance itself from the growing controversy surrounding data centers.
