OpenAI offers to give power back to the grid, on election day
Data centers need huge amounts of power, and local opposition is growing. On Monday, OpenAI announced its Grid Protectors Program, to be piloted at a future data center in Effingham County, Georgia. OpenAI promises to free up to 1,000 megawatts during extreme weather or emergencies. The Verge says that is enough for air conditioners in about 700,000 homes.
OpenAI says it wants to protect consumer electricity costs, and it calls these sites 'compute campuses'. Some on Reddit see the new name as a way to make data centers less unpopular. The spending continues: Oracle filed to sell $20 billion in stock and bonds for its AI buildout, and Marvell signed a $115 billion AI deal.
Today is the US midterm election, and data centers are a local issue in many places.
Power bills and grid reliability touch everyone, not only AI users. A promise to share power in emergencies is useful, but the details, and who checks them, will matter.
