Building AI infrastructure with the Effingham County community

Project Camellia is a long-term datacenter project that OpenAI is designing and developing in Effingham County, Georgia. To support the data center, we are contracting with Georgia Power Company for 3.2 gigawatts of power which will be delivered in phases between 2028 and 2032.

We’re excited about the opportunity to work with this community. We also recognize that new data center projects can raise important questions, so we’ve outlined our initial commitments that will guide how we engage, develop, and operate.

1. Electricity rates will not go up for residents because of this project. Georgia families will not subsidize this project. OpenAI will pay the full cost of the infrastructure and electric-service costs required to serve it. Under Georgia Public Service Commission rules, those costs cannot be passed on to existing ratepayers. Also, this project will be one of the first data centers designed to proactively reduce its power consumption before residential customers are impacted during periods of high demand, so we can meaningfully support the reliability of Georgia Power’s electric system and support our neighbors. 

2. Water use is minimal. The project will use a closed-loop water system, which recirculates water rather than continuously withdrawing and discharging. It works like a car radiator and is intended to keep ongoing water use low. The water used will not divert water from local communities and the ongoing water needs will be for people to use in an ordinary workplace setting such as restrooms, kitchens, sanitation, and maintenance and will be similar to an office building with the same amount of employees. 

3. We are committed to making sure local communities benefit. OpenAI will provide $80 million in community benefits over the life of the project, informed by the community and directed toward local priorities such as schools, public safety, health care, utilities, workforce training, housing, veterans’ services, and support for small businesses and working families. This commitment is separate from projected tax revenue and the Codex credits described below. We will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local tax revenue and expect to be the largest taxpayer in the county. The project will create thousands of construction and permanent on-site jobs and prioritize local contractors and businesses.

In addition to the $80 million in community benefits, we will make up to $71 million in credits for Codex available to eligible Georgia college, community college, and technical school students. Codex is OpenAI’s agentic coding tool, now available within ChatGPT, that helps people build software and complete technical projects. Eligible students will receive $100 in credits through their ChatGPT accounts to extend their use of Codex, gain hands-on experience with agentic AI, build projects, and develop practical skills for careers across engineering, manufacturing, health care, education, entrepreneurship, and the skilled trades. Georgia students will be able to access their free Codex credits at chatgpt.com/codex/georgia-college-students/⁠(opens in a new window) 

4. Being accountable. To help ensure the project meets these commitments, an annual publicly available audit by an independent firm will be conducted and released.

We have been meeting with state and local officials, community leaders, schools, and other regional partners to learn about local priorities and gather feedback on the project. On Thursday, July 23, we will hold a public open house where residents can meet the project team, ask questions, and help shape how the project delivers for Effingham County. Input from the open house and continued conversations with residents, local officials, schools, businesses, and community organizations will help shape a Georgia Community Compact to memorialize these commitments. The Compact will translate community priorities into specific commitments and clear accountability measures as the project develops.

We believe showing up early is the right way to build trust, with that, we are still at the beginning of the development process. Significant work remains on infrastructure, project phasing, design, financing, and operating model. As we work through these details, we intend to engage with local communities, government, workforce organizations, and our infrastructure and financing partners.

The proposed site is located within the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub, a pre-existing industrially-zoned warehouse project. This project is expected to generate materially less traffic than a warehouse project on the same site, while also using less water, creating stronger long-term tax revenue, and supporting more durable on-site employment.

AI can help accelerate science and medicine, expand access to better tools for learning and discovery, create new kinds of jobs and businesses, and make everyday work more productive. Computing infrastructure is one of the main factors determining how quickly AI can improve, how reliably it works, and how broadly it can be used. 

Building this infrastructure in the United States strengthens domestic industry, creates good jobs, and helps ensure American communities participate in the economic opportunity created by AI. Project Camellia can help build that foundation while creating lasting opportunity in Effingham County and Southeast Georgia, and would be entirely privately funded.

We are already seeing that potential take shape in Abilene, Texas⁠(opens in a new window), where our first campus is operating at scale, training frontier models, and supporting thousands of jobs.

There is significant work ahead, and we will share more information as the plans develop. For the latest information on the project, please visit www.projectcamellia.com⁠(opens in a new window).