Georgia residents sue OpenAI over $30 billion data center plan

Three Effingham County, Georgia, residents filed a civil RICO lawsuit against OpenAI and local officials over a data center expected to cost $20 billion to $30 billion, with a planned compute capacity of 3.2 gigawatts.

The Effingham Herald reported the filing against approvals for “Project Camellia,” a five-phase development in the county.

The filing states allegations, not findings of liability.

Who does the lawsuit name?

The complaint names three plaintiffs: Dr. Michelle Finch-Mincey, Lehman Mincey Jr. and Raymond Carver.

• County defendants: all six Effingham County commissioners, Chairperson Damon Rahn, Forrest Floyd, Roger Burdette, Jamie DeLoach, Elizabeth Helmly and Phil Kieffer.
• Also named: County Manager Tim Callanan, Effingham County Industrial Development Authority CEO Brandt Herndon and the authority itself.
• Corporate and land-sale defendants: OpenAI, Octans GA LLC, which operates the data center for OpenAI, and Savannah Industrial Development LLC, involved in selling IDA property to Octans and OpenAI.

These designations identify the defendants. They do not establish the alleged misconduct.

What do residents allege about Project Camellia?

According to the complaint, the defendants used non-disclosure agreements and misleading public statements to keep residents unaware of the project’s nature for as long as possible.

Plaintiffs say confidential negotiations and closed-door decisions advanced the project through land acquisition, tax incentives and zoning approvals before residents received timely notice.

They also allege fraud, concealment, improper land transactions, zoning violations and civil racketeering.

Their claimed harm is concrete: nearby property values fell, and purchase offers for residential properties dropped or were withdrawn after the data center was announced.

The report does not include a response from OpenAI or the named county defendants.

What has OpenAI promised about utilities and water?

OpenAI says it will pay the full cost of all required infrastructure upgrades and will not affect community utility costs.

The company also promises minimal water consumption through a closed-loop water system.

Neither promise comes with figures in the report. It provides no upgrade budget, projected water volume, construction financing schedule or binding contract terms.

That omission matters because the lawsuit alleges residents learned of key decisions only after contracts had been signed.

Why does the lawsuit use Georgia’s RICO law?

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act began as a tool against organized crime, especially Mafia leadership using lower-level members to commit crimes and handle the dirty work.

Georgia’s version imposes less stringent requirements than the federal statute, which permits its use in matters that appear unrelated to the Mafia.

It was used in the 2023 election racketeering case against Donald Trump and 18 others over Georgia’s 2020 presidential result.

The law also appeared in Young Thug’s trial after the rapper was accused of running YSL Records as a criminal street gang.

Critics argue that this breadth reaches beyond organized crime into more ordinary felonies.

Volkan Topalli, a Georgia State University professor of criminal justice and criminology, told Atlanta Magazine: “When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

The quote captures critics’ concern about the statute’s reach. It does not resolve the allegations in this case.

How common are the secrecy claims?

Non-disclosure agreements have appeared in other data center negotiations, although developers cite insider-trading rules as the reason for using them.

West Feliciana Parish in Louisiana closed a data center deal without relying on such an agreement, according to the report.

In Gilroy, California, residents of an AWS data center site learned its nature only when construction began.

That project had spent five years in permitting, using zoning rules established 45 years earlier.

Neither comparison resolves the allegations against Effingham County. Together they show that secrecy during data center approvals is an established industry issue, not an isolated claim.

What remains unproven about the build?

For OpenAI, the stated 3.2-gigawatt capacity and $20 billion-to-$30 billion cost are plans, not confirmed operating figures.

The report identifies no construction schedule, financing plan or evidence that work has begun at the Effingham County site.

OpenAI’s timetable therefore depends on whether the county can defend its approval process without the secrecy practices alleged in the complaint.

The next milestones are the RICO litigation and public scrutiny of infrastructure funding, zoning and water commitments, before the five-phase build can become an operating facility.