Meta has appointed former Trump administration adviser Dina Powell McCormick to a newly created senior position, underscoring the tech giant’s determination to accelerate its push into artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp said Powell McCormick will join the company as president and vice chairman, with a remit that includes global strategy, government engagement and capital partnerships, with a particular focus on funding and scaling Meta’s extensive AI ambitions.
The appointment comes just weeks after Powell McCormick resigned from Meta’s board, a move that initially surprised investors since she had joined less than a year earlier. She will now report directly to Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company confirmed.
In a statement, Zuckerberg said Powell McCormick was particularly well-suited for the role because of her background. “Dina’s experience at the highest levels of global finance, coupled with her deep relationships around the world, make her exceptionally well positioned to help Meta navigate this next phase of growth,” he said.
Meta has become one of the most aggressive investors in AI infrastructure, competing with rivals such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Oracle to develop increasingly powerful systems. The company is building several gigawatt-scale data centers across the United States, including a flagship site in Louisiana highlighted by former US President Donald Trump that is expected to cost up to $50 billion.
Zuckerberg has pledged to spend up to $600 billion on infrastructure in the coming years and has already begun raising tens of billions of dollars in external funding to support the program. Meta has also established long-term energy partnerships and positioned itself as one of the world’s largest corporate buyers of nuclear energy to meet AI’s massive power needs.
Powell McCormick will play a central role in securing and managing these capital relationships. She brings more than three decades of experience in global finance, including 16 years at Goldman Sachs, where she led the firm’s global sovereign investment banking business. Most recently, she was President and Head of Global Client Services at investment firm BDT & MSD Partners.
She is expected to remain on the advisory board of BDT & MSD following her move to Meta.
Her appointment also reflects Meta’s growing engagement with governments as scrutiny of AI, data centers and energy consumption intensifies. Powell McCormick previously served as deputy national security adviser during Trump’s first term and held senior positions in the George W. Bush administration. Her husband, Dave McCormick, is currently a Republican Senator for Pennsylvania.
Meta’s move comes amid intensifying competition in AI infrastructure, with rivals including Elon Musk’s xAI, which recently announced a $20 billion expansion of data center capacity near Memphis, and OpenAI-backed projects seeking to transform global computing power.
