• Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has adopted a new cause: the impact of data centers.
• She said residents are especially angry about NDAs between developers and local leaders.
• That lack of transparency, she said, is fueling anger among residents who feel ignored.

Big Tech is expanding into communities across the country — and they aren't all that happy about it.

Many residents in cities and towns where tech companies are looking to build large data centers to power their AI products are mobilizing against them, concerned about a possible drain on water supplies, a surge in electricity costs, and a decline in their overall quality of life.

Now, legendary environmental activist Erin Brockovich, famously played by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film about her work, has joined the fight.

Brockovich said on a recent episode of "The Jim Acosta Show" that communities are angry because they feel shut out of the decisions being made in their own backyards — and that the projects are being "shoved down their throat in secrecy."

Brockovich said that residents learn about projects in the proposal stage, only to find that local officials are limited in what they can say because of nondisclosure agreements. In other cases, she said, projects are presented as warehouses rather than data centers.

"There's a lot of secrecy and NDAs at a very proposal stage," Brockovich said.

That lack of transparency, she said, is fueling anger among residents who believe their concerns are being ignored.

High-profile data center projects have faced backlash in recent months. A massive data center project in Utah backed by "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary has sparked statewide opposition, for example, leading Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to unveil a new "framework" for data center development on Friday that addresses many of the community's concerns.

"Utahns deserve confidence that water resources, air quality, utility rates, wildlife, and quality of life will be protected. This framework helps ensure that data center development aligns with Utah's long-term interests and reflects Utah values," Cox wrote in an X post.

Microsoft, which once relied on NDAs in the early stages of data center development, said earlier this year that it would stop requesting them after local opposition.

"We've made the decision that being transparent with the communities where we operate or seek to operate is paramount," the company said. "This shift is about strengthening public trust, enabling better dialogue, and ensuring that our growth is matched by meaningful engagement."

Microsoft has adopted its own framework for building data centers called the "Community-First AI Infrastructure Plan." It promises to pay for its own electricity, minimize water usage, and create local jobs, among other things.

Brockovich, who has spent decades working with communities on environmental fights, said residents are not opposed to hearing difficult information. What they object to, she said, is being excluded from the process.

"I've worked in communities for 30 years," she said. "They handle the truth."

• OpenAI has become a centerpiece in the AI talent wars, data reviewed by Business Insider shows.
• Workers often leave Big Tech for Sam Altman's venture and then move on to smaller startups.
• The average tenure for US-based OpenAI employees is around 16 months.

Workers leave Big Tech for OpenAI. They fan out across a growing ecosystem of startups. Rinse and repeat.

Since it launched ChatGPT, the Sam Altman-led company has quickly become a magnet for AI talent. It has pulled hundreds of researchers and engineers from competitors like Google, Meta, and Apple, according to data reviewed by Business Insider. After sticking around for a while, many of those employees go on to found or join rival startups of their own.

The company has nearly quadrupled in size since its chatbot took off in 2023, scaling from a small research lab of around 1,000 employees to a tech company with more than 4,000 workers.

To get a sense of how OpenAI is faring in the race for AI talent, Business Insider analyzed findings from workforce intelligence provider Live Data Technologies, which used LinkedIn to track the comings and goings of around 1,300 employees from January 2023 to March 2026.

Live Data Technologies analyzed publicly available professional profile data for OpenAI employees who had available information on previous employers. The roles analyzed ranged from engineering and research to product, human resources, and recruiting.

Representatives for OpenAI didn't respond to a request for comment.

The company's hiring pipeline is highly concentrated

OpenAI was originally founded by Altman and Elon Musk in 2015 to compete with Google's DeepMind AI lab.

Now, Google is the No. 1 source of talent for OpenAI, accounting for roughly a quarter of hires, according to the data.

Nearly half of OpenAI hires in the last three years came from either Google, Meta, Apple, or Microsoft.

Apple's Jony Ive joined OpenAI last summer to work on a new AI device. The project encompasses around 300 workers, many of whom came from Apple, The Information reported earlier this year.

The company has also made several high-profile hires over the past year, including Slack CEO Denise Dresser, OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger, and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo.

Since 2023, OpenAI has added roughly four times as many engineers as it has lost, highlighting the company's rapid expansion as the AI race intensifies.

The battle for AI talent has become one of Silicon Valley's fiercest. Big Tech companies are aggressively competing for a relatively small pool of researchers capable of building advanced AI systems.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly taken a hands-on role in recruiting top AI employees, while Meta and other companies have reportedly offered massive compensation packages, sometimes valued in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in stock.

OpenAI is known for its high compensation packages. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that its employees receive an average of $1.5 million in stock-based compensation. Public salary data from H-1B visa applications shows that research scientists at the AI venture have salaries ranging from $245,000 to $685,000, while engineering roles are listed with a range of $165,000 to $290,000.

Where employees go after OpenAI tells a different story

Departures are fragmented, spreading across more than 150 different companies, including competitors like Meta, Anthropic, and emerging labs such as Thinking Machines Lab, according to the data. The majority of OpenAI employees left for smaller startups, venture capital firms, or academia, according to the data.

The data suggests OpenAI has become a centerpiece in the AI talent network, pulling researchers from Big Tech and sending alumni across the startup and VC ecosystem.

Only a handful of companies received more than 15 OpenAI alumni in the last three years: Anthropic, Meta, Google, and Thinking Machines Lab, the data shows.

Anthropic is perhaps the best-known example. It was founded by former OpenAI researchers, including siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei. VP of Research Max Schwarzer left OpenAI for Anthropic earlier this month.

Meanwhile, several OpenAI employees who left the company to help found Thinking Machine Labs in February, including Barret Zoph, rejoined OpenAI earlier this year.

Common roles at OpenAI include engineering and research, the data shows. The average tenure for US-based OpenAI employees is around 16 months.

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