OpenAI has hired a senior executive for its burgeoning community engagement team, as a growing anti-data center movement risks upsetting its compute rollout.. Yvette Eden Ruiz joined the company from JPMorgan Chase, where she spent the last 12 years.. – OpenAI. “I’m excited to share that I’ve joined OpenAI’s Community Engagement team,” Ruiz said on LinkedIn.. “I hesitated to post this, in part because the conversation around data centers has become so politicized.
Communities have real questions that deserve honest answers, but the discourse is too often shaped by misinformation and easy extremes. I’ve always tried to approach big, complicated issues with curiosity, candor, and a willingness to hold competing truths. That is part of why this work matters to me.. “OpenAI has an extraordinary opportunity to set a new standard for how the infrastructure powering the next era of AI is built well and responsibly.
My work focuses on helping ensure communities are stronger because OpenAI is there.”. She added that “major investments should create meaningful, lasting value for the people and places around them.”. OpenAI is one of a number of data center companies that have promised to pay for any grid upgrades required by its compute footprint, in an effort to avoid energy price increases for locals..
Increased concern about power and water use, as well as air quality and AI job losses, has led to a significant anti-data center movement across the world. In the US, projects have seen delays or been fully canceled, and local governments have enacted moratoriums across the country..
Ahead of the midterms, the issue of whether to promote more data center development, or drastically curb it, has become a major political debate.. OpenAI president Greg Brockman is one of a number of major tech figures funding the pro-AI super political action committee Leading the Future (LTF), which is behind Build American AI, a group that plans to run adverts promoting data centers in key states..
However, LTF has itself been criticized by local groups, and in June OpenAI distanced itself from the super PAC. “There have been questions around Leading the Future (LTF), which has received support from our president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, and his wife Anna,” OpenAI said..
“OpenAI does not direct the activities of LTF, or have visibility into their operations.”. 01 Jul 2026
