OpenAI is facing online backlash over its first influencer brand trip, a luxury upstate New York retreat held as the company nears a $500 billion Ohio data center deal.
Key Points:
- OpenAI hosted a two-day creator retreat called Summer Club at a resort in upstate New York.
- Influencers who posted about the trip faced comments about AI energy use and defense contracts.
- The company says the event was education-led and centered on its newly released ChatGPT Work tool.
Summer Club Retreat Draws Creator Criticism
The two-day gathering, which OpenAI called Summer Club, ran over the weekend at Wildflower Farms, a resort in Gardiner, New York, roughly two hours north of Manhattan. Attendees moved between farm-to-table dinners, beekeeping sessions and product classes. One of them showed followers a website she had built during the trip, and another photographed a brochure advertising a painting workshop on the property.
The videos were polished and upbeat, but the comment sections underneath them were not. Several people told one influencer, who posted from the retreat on TikTok and Instagram, that she had sold her soul for a nice hotel room.
Others asked about the environmental toll of AI data centers. One attendee was invited, sarcastically, to film a get-ready-with-me segment inside a data center, and a third creator appeared to delete her post about the trip altogether. One commenter said such events hand critics fresh ammunition, and called it a poor moment for anyone to advertise a $5,000-a-night suite.
Also Read: AI Infrastructure, Payday Lender's Desperate $1B Pivot To Dominate Data Centers
Data Center Spending Fuels OpenAI Anger
Spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the retreat was education-led and built around ChatGPT Work, a recently released tool that helps users draft documents and prepare presentations. He added that creators shape how many people now learn about the company's products, and that OpenAI welcomes debate from those who attend its events and ask tough questions.
Timing sharpened the reaction. Nvidia is in talks to backstop OpenAI's lease of a 10-gigawatt campus in Pike County, Ohio, a former uranium enrichment site carrying a reported price near $500 billion. Commenters also raised the $200 million ceiling contract that the Defense Department awarded the company in June 2025 for prototype work in warfighting and enterprise domains.
Charles Porch Hire Signals Creator Strategy
The retreat follows a hiring push aimed squarely at the creative class. OpenAI recruited Charles Porch, who spent 15 years at Meta and Instagram building relationships with celebrities and creators, as its first vice president of global creative partnerships in February.
Rival labs have courted influencers without comparable fallout.
Anthropic reportedly hosted a brand dinner for Claude, and Microsoft flew creators to the Super Bowl in February to showcase its Copilot assistant to a wider audience. One attendee wrote on LinkedIn that she had expected curiosity about practical tips and tricks, and never once considered that the trip would prove controversial.
Read Next: Foldable iPhone Rumors Get Specific: $2,500, No Face ID, No Telephoto