OpenAI wants to rename "data centers" as "compute campuses"

Data centers have a pretty bad reputation these days.

Still, Altman has a quick mind. If the public opinion problem can't be solved for the moment, you can start by solving the name "data center."

According to reports, OpenAI hopes everyone will call AI data centers "compute campuses" from now on. A company spokesperson has confirmed the idea.

OpenAI's reasoning is that the new name better reflects the scale and role of the AI infrastructure it is building. These projects involve long-term investment in computing, energy infrastructure, and technical jobs.

It does sound friendlier than the picture "data center" conjures up—rows of humming servers. The word "campus" carries a whiff of the festive air of investment promotion, as if the next step should be discussing how many jobs it will bring to the local area.

But the problem is, nearby residents didn't oppose data centers in the first place because the name was bad.

A survey published by the Pew Research Center in September this year goes some way to explaining why OpenAI is putting so much thought into naming.

In January this year, 39% of American adults considered data centers generally harmful to the environment. By the summer survey, that share had risen to 54%. At the same time, half of respondents believed data centers would have a negative impact on household energy bills.

If the question is put more directly—how would you feel about a new data center opening near your home?—60% of respondents said they would feel uneasy.

When such a large project is built at your doorstep, residents' first worry is electricity bills. Data centers consume a lot of power, and if existing power facilities are insufficient, more must be built. The money power companies spend on grid upgrades is often recovered through electricity bills. If the added costs are not fully borne by the data center, nearby households may end up sharing them. You haven't used a single extra kilowatt-hour at home, yet your bill goes up—who would be happy about that?

Then there's noise, especially for households separated from a data center by just one street. Once the facility is built, it will operate for years, and the sound carries into homes—who could put up with that?

Professional data center companies have already run into this kind of trouble. Vantage is a large data center developer and operator, and one of the partners in OpenAI's "Stargate" project. In July this year, local media reported on the experience of a community in Sterling, Virginia. The Vantage data center sits right across from residents' homes, and to obtain power before connecting to the grid, the project used natural gas turbines to generate electricity.

Some residents actually supported the project at first. But after the facility went into operation, the constant screeching changed their minds. That high-frequency humming could be heard indoors even with the doors closed.

Vantage responded at the time that the facility's noise was below local limits, but that the company was still taking measures to reduce it.

OpenAI actually started addressing these issues long ago.

In January this year, OpenAI announced the community plan for "Stargate," pledging to bear the costs of its own energy use and not let project operations drive up local residents' electricity prices. Specific measures include funding the construction of new generation facilities, upgrading the grid, and equipping projects with dedicated power sources and storage.

Take the Wisconsin project: OpenAI says the partner developer will, through a dedicated electricity rate arrangement, bear the relevant power infrastructure investment, with the aim of preventing these added costs from being passed on to other users.

The same plan also proposes prioritizing closed-loop or low-water-use cooling systems and developing community plans based on the conditions of each project location.

If implemented, these arrangements would of course be more effective than a name change.

OpenAI is so eager to reassure neighbors partly because it has its own calculations. If residents really do oppose a project, a data center may not get built.

Microsoft has already hit a wall. Last October, after residents objected, it abandoned a data center site in Caledonia, Wisconsin. The company's statement directly cited "community feedback" and said it would look for other suitable locations.

OpenAI itself has run into trouble too. In September this year, five residents and an environmental group sued over its proposed $20 billion data center project in Georgia. The defendants include a local development agency and an OpenAI affiliate. The plaintiffs allege that the project approval process lacked transparency and that related meetings and land transactions did not follow public procedures.

Yet OpenAI is still booking more computing capacity. In August this year, it announced it had signed to lock in about 8 gigawatts of IT capacity at the PORTS-Pike project in Ohio, with a 20-year lease; the first 800 megawatts are not expected to be delivered until 2028. The company also explicitly stated that further development depends on conditions including infrastructure, permits, environmental review, and financing.

The big orders have already been announced. If, along the way, site changes or lawsuits arise because of resident opposition, the originally scheduled construction and power supply timelines could be disrupted.

The conflict between data centers and residents' daily lives will continue, and a name change will not work miracles. After all, if Wang Ergou isn't handsome, changing his name to Wang Runfa won't help either. If surgery is needed, then go under the knife. If neighbors' opinions are not handled well, what OpenAI may have to change next time is probably the project address.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Letter List" (ID: wujicaijing), author: Xiao Jinya, published by 36Kr with authorization.