# Achiam warns OpenAI's "compute campus" rebrand risks deepening trust crisis

> Original title: Prediction to my friends at OpenAI. I still don't know if this is real, but fwiw, I think it's pretty risky to try a rebrand that is a ve...

- Source: Joshua Achiam
- Published: 2026-11-02T18:39:58.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/k0zpq960z58l569khhuyp3260
- Original: https://x.com/jachiam0/status/2117325862207185012

## Summary

Joshua Achiam says OpenAI's apparent shift from calling its facilities "datacenters" to "compute campuses" is a risky rebrand, since AI is politically sensitive and the rename looks transparent. He says "datacenter" is a poor name because it does not describe what happens there, but "campus" is not much more descriptive, and suggests "chipcenters" instead.

## Post

Prediction to my friends at OpenAI. I still don't know if this is real, but fwiw, I think it's pretty risky to try a rebrand that is a very transparent rename when the field of AI as a whole is the politically radioactive bit. It seems more likely to play into and deepen the trust crisis than to alleviate it. I do think "datacenter" is a bad name primarily because it isn't descriptive / evocative of what actually happens there, but "campus" isn't all that descriptive either. Maybe call them "chipcenters" because it's exactly what they are

## Quoted post @CaseyNewton

> NOMENCLATURE WATCH: Just got my first email from OpenAI referring to their data centers as 'compute campuses'

https://x.com/CaseyNewton/status/2117303868694700525