OpenAI has started calling its data centers "compute campuses"

OpenAI has begun moving away from the traditional term "data center," replacing it with the concept of a "compute campus." The new name debuted on Monday in an official announcement of the Grid Protectors program, a pilot project of which is being prepared in Effingham County, Georgia, as reported by The Verge. The previous term is almost not used in the text of the statement.

The stated goal of the program is to reduce the growing pressure of technology infrastructure on local power grids, especially during extreme weather conditions and emergencies. OpenAI has promised to independently cover the resulting costs and help local communities maintain power supply. The company also stated that the new complexes are fundamentally different from the data centers of yesteryear and provide flexibility in power consumption.

According to Axios, the developer planned the rebranding as a political and PR move after the US Congressional elections, anticipating increased regulatory pressure. The construction of data centers is causing growing dissatisfaction among the American public due to high resource consumption, industrial noise, and the risk of passing utility costs on to ordinary residents.

Representatives of public and environmental organizations received the name change with skepticism. Executive Director of the PauseAI US group Holly Elmore and Director of the NAACP Center for Environmental and Climate Justice Abre' Conner called the move an attempt to distance themselves from a toxic term without actually solving the problems of environmental pollution and the burden on utility grids.

Earlier, OpenAI's rival, Anthropic, committed to fully paying for the modernization of power grids to connect its sites, investing in the development of local communities, and protecting water resources. OpenAI itself did not respond to a request from journalists to comment on the reasons for the change in the terminology used.