OpenAI forges ahead with data centres amid political scrutiny

OpenAI will press ahead with its US data centre expansion plans despite a Democratic midterm sweep last week that has fuelled fears of tighter scrutiny of the facilities, its CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC in an interview on Friday. “When I think about the midterms, I need to keep thinking about how we keep investing to meet customer demand,” Friar said. “We are going to keep building out those relationships with communities so we can get the compute we need,” she added. One of the corporate faces of the AI boom, OpenAI has moved quickly to counter fears that a shift in congressional power could slow the industry’s growth.