OpenAI "compute campuses": a rebrand announced in the wrong order

What happened. The SF Standard reported that OpenAI hopes to rebrand the contentious facilities as "AI compute campuses," starting after the midterms, as Axios first reported. According to Gizmodo, an OpenAI spokesperson apparently confirmed to Business Insider on Sunday that this was its new preferred term, saying "Compute campuses better describes the scale and role of the infrastructure we're building for AI."

Two days later the vote came in. The Next Web reports that US voters sided against AI data centres in all but one of 41 local ballot measures, and that in Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown ousted Senator Jon Husted after casting him as "the face of data centers". An NBC News exit poll found that 76% of voters would oppose a new data centre in their community.

The angle. Most coverage stopped at the joke. Paul Argenti, a Dartmouth communications professor, told the SF Standard it's "lipstick on the pig". But the substance arrived on Thursday. AOL reports that OpenAI committed to paying the full cost of electricity and infrastructure associated with its projects while providing financial assurances in case they are reduced or canceled, and pledged to prioritize closed-loop or low-water cooling, publish information about electricity and water use and not rely on nondisclosure agreements. The name came out before the proof. That is the wrong order for any rebrand.

Why it matters. The old name had turned into a weapon for the other side. Gizmodo notes that calling an opponent a "data senator" has proven to be a great way to earn publicity, and "compute campus senator" certainly doesn't have the same ring to it. The industry has tried renames before. The SF Standard recalls that Jensen Huang repeatedly said "AI factory" at a 2024 Nvidia event, and companies have also tried "AI superfactory," "supercluster," "technology campus," and "AI gigafactory". Then a reputation problem became a capital problem. On November 5, per Yahoo Finance, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 12% amid worries that Democratic wins in statehouses like Texas and Georgia could slow data-center permitting and power approvals.

What to watch. Watch whether "compute campus" survives contact with town halls. Watch whether the electricity and NDA pledges become signed contracts. And watch Texas, where The Next Web reports that the governor-elect wants a moratorium.

Go deeper: "Rebranding in the real world: what actually happens when you change everything", a free lesson on MBA Training (https://www.mba-training.com/en/lessons/rebranding-real-world-application).