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Google might be running away with the AI market right now—as demonstrated by today’s Apple deal—but Meta Platforms can’t be counted out. Meta’s hiring today of former Trump administration official and longtime Goldman Sachs partner Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chair was a savvy move by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It strengthens the company’s political and financial world connections, which are vital for AI development.
When was the last time a tech appointment elicited a glowing post from President Donald Trump—like this one? (For more on McCormick’s appointment, catch The Information’s Editor in Chief Jessica Lessin on TITV today.) McCormick also has connections with the Middle East, which will come in very handy. Part of her job is to partner with “governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta’s infrastructure,” Zuckerberg said today in a Facebook post. He reminded us—not that we needed a reminder—of his gargantuan ambitions in this sphere: “Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time.”
For those who have no idea what a gigawatt is (most of us), we provided some context in this piece last September, which said a big data center used to provide 10 to 50 megawatts of power and a typical nuclear power plant generates 1 gigawatt (more on Zuckerberg’s infrastructure plans).
It may be McCormick’s political ties to the White House that come in handy in the short term. The dangers Meta’s social media apps pose to children is a subject that never dies for politicians. AI has added fuel to those worries, as we saw in a series of news reports last summer. It wouldn’t be a surprise, then, if some enterprising people in Congress went after Meta again this year. After all, it is an election year. Having McCormick in place could help the company deal with any such attacks.
Google could use someone with her connections. Its deal with Apple to help the iPhone maker power its Siri chatbot, which followed its shopping announcement on Sunday, immediately stirred criticism about Google’s growing power. Elon Musk, for instance, tweeted in response to the Apple news: “This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that [they] also have Android and Chrome.” Antitrust regulators had endeavored to ensure Google didn’t extend its power in search into the new field of AI. But the relatively weak penalties the judge in the antitrust case imposed on the company has ensured that’s exactly what is happening. If Google’s critics in Washington start casting around for fresh action they can take against the tech giant, it will need some powerful friends.
Trump’s Tech Ties Pose Political Risk
The Trump administration’s willingness to engage with big tech is regarded as a huge positive by tech executives, who felt the Biden White House had no interest in talking with them. But there are signs that Trump’s engagement courts political risks.
Axios reported Monday on a survey that showed 49% of registered voters thought big tech benefited the most from Trump’s AI policies. A majority thought states should be able to make their own AI regulations, something Trump has tried to block.
Given how vocal Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have been on the need for AI regulation, and based on the results of this survey, you can see that Trump’s ties to tech could become a political liability for him. That, in turn, could end up becoming a liability for the tech industry!
In Other News
• The Ellison family’s Paramount Skydance plans to run a proxy battle to win seats on Warner Bros. Discovery’s board at this spring’s annual meeting, Paramount said on Monday, outlining its next steps in its fight to win the bidding war for WBD. Paramount said it also sued WBD in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
• Anthropic on Monday announced Cowork, a version of its popular Claude Code coding agent designed to handle noncoding tasks on a user’s device. The tool will initially be available for Claude Max subscribers, who pay $100 or $200 per month for the premium tier depending on usage.
• BitGo, a crypto custody firm, said Monday it is seeking to raise as much as $201 million in an initial public offering at a valuation of up to $1.96 billion.
Today on The Information’s TITV
Check out our latest episode of TITV in which we break down the implications of Meta’s new vice chair appointment and Apple’s big deal with Google.
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