OpenAI Publishes a Community Compact as European Campaigners Plan a Moratorium Push

Data centre siting has become a political question quickly, and two documents from November 5, 2026 show the industry and its critics answering it in different ways.

What OpenAI committed to

OpenAI published a National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint. The compact covers only "future campuses that we own and operate", which by its wording does not cover capacity run by partners. Each campus gets its own local compact, with these common commitments:

Power. OpenAI says it will pay the full cost of the electricity it uses and the infrastructure needed to serve it, and provide financial assurances before major spending so other customers are protected if a project is cut.
Transparency. It promises a water plan per campus, published site-level water and electricity use, and annual reporting.
NDAs. OpenAI writes that "we will not use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with public officials, allowing only narrow protections covering legitimate security information, trade secrets, or proprietary or competitively sensitive information."

The blueprint asks state utility commissions to make large customers cover the costs they add to the grid. OpenAI offers one concrete example of flexible load: its Georgia Power agreement for the planned Effingham County campus "allows the utility to reduce the power it delivers to us by up to 1,000 megawatts during periods of high demand."

The other side of the Atlantic

The Stop Dirty Data Centres coalition planned actions on November 6 and 7 by over 100 groups in 15 European countries, demanding an immediate moratorium on new large projects. Euronews reported actions planned in Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. Organisers told the Irish Examiner they expected attendance to range from a handful at some events to several hundred at larger ones in Dublin and London. The paper also said opponents of data centres were among the biggest Democratic winners in the US midterms that week.

The numbers explain the pressure. Ireland's Central Statistics Office put data centres at 23 percent of metered electricity in 2025, and the Irish Examiner cites EirGrid saying that could reach 30 percent by 2030. Euronews, citing PwC, says annual European data centre investment rose from €12 billion in 2020 to €25-26 billion this year.

What remains uncertain. Our sources were written before the protests took place, so we cannot confirm turnout or what happened at any site. OpenAI's compact is a voluntary statement of intent, and the exclusions for "competitively sensitive information" could be read widely. There is no independent mechanism yet for checking its promised reporting, and by its wording the compact does not extend to capacity OpenAI does not own and operate.

Analysis: The direction of travel favours whoever can show site-level data early. A company planning capacity should assume that power cost allocation, water reporting and curtailment terms will become conditions of approval, and should model them now. Smaller users are affected too. If Dinky's team at Belgavi's Book Store picks a cloud region for a catalogue search service, the region's grid constraints may become a future source of price and availability changes, so it is worth keeping the workload portable between regions.

Sources and evidence

OpenAI's November 5 compact promises full power-cost payment, site-level water and electricity data and near-elimination of NDAs with officials, but only at campuses it owns. More than 100 European groups planned November 6 and 7 protests seeking a moratorium; our sources predate them. Expect power allocation, water reporting and curtailment to become approval conditions.