OpenAI Just Bet $30 Billion on One Georgia County — Locals Aren't Sold

Our Take

Project Camellia is a big number wrapped in a bigger number: $30 billion, 3.2 gigawatts, 1,400 acres, and a 25-year Georgia Power deal that phases in through 2032. Credit to US Data Centers -- Land4DataCenter for laying out the pieces — the $80M community benefits pledge, the Codex credits for students, the closed-loop cooling, the promised independent audit. All of that is real and worth naming. But a self-built, self-owned campus of this size raises the question every host county eventually asks too late: who actually carries the 25-year risk if power demand, water use, or tax assumptions don't play out the way the glossy deck said they would?

An "independent annual audit" and 1,000 MW of flexible demand response sound like accountability, but audited by whom, reported to whom, and enforceable how — those details decide whether this is a real check or a press-release line. Effingham County isn't alone in wrestling with this; the video's nod to Goochland County, Virginia and the broader pushback across horse country and ranchland says the same fight is happening coast to coast, just with different zoning boards and different amounts of local leverage.

We're tracking Camellia and every other multi-gigawatt build like it on our facility map — costs, deals, and who signed off. If your county is being asked to say yes to something this size, our take-action resources are a good place to start asking harder questions before the ground gets broken.