Overview
- OpenAI and Effingham County officials announced Project Camellia on Wednesday as a multibillion‑dollar plan to build a 1,400‑plus acre data‑center campus near Savannah with an initial $20 billion commitment.
- Under a 25‑year agreement with Georgia Power, the campus will receive about 3,200 megawatts of electricity in phases from 2028 through 2032 and provide up to 1,000 MW of flexible demand response to help stabilize the grid.
- OpenAI has agreed to pay all transmission and service infrastructure costs, offer financial assurances to protect other customers, and host an independent annual audit to verify its commitments.
- The company pledged $80 million for local community priorities, up to $71 million in Codex credits for Georgia students, and said the project will create roughly 400 initial permanent jobs plus thousands of construction positions.
- Residents and advocates have raised concerns about public input and unresolved water sourcing despite OpenAI saying the site will use closed‑loop cooling, and public meetings and a planned Georgia Community Compact are scheduled to address those questions.