Meta has appointed former Trump administration adviser Dina Powell McCormick to a newly created senior leadership role, underlining 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 spanning global strategy, government engagement and capital partnerships, with a particular focus on funding and scaling Meta’s vast AI ambitions.
The appointment comes just weeks after Powell McCormick stepped down from Meta’s board, a move that initially surprised investors given she had joined less than a year earlier. She will now report directly to Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, the company confirmed.
In a statement, Zuckerberg said Powell McCormick’s background made her uniquely suited to the role. “Dina’s experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her exceptionally well placed to help Meta navigate this next phase of growth,” he said.
Meta has emerged as one of the most aggressive investors in AI infrastructure as it races rivals such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Oracle to develop increasingly powerful systems. The company is building multiple gigawatt-scale data centres across the United States, including a flagship site in Louisiana that was highlighted by former US president Donald Trump and is expected to cost as much as $50bn.
Zuckerberg has pledged to spend up to $600bn on infrastructure over the coming years and has already begun raising tens of billions of dollars in external financing to support the programme. Meta has also struck long-term energy partnerships, positioning itself as one of the world’s largest corporate buyers of nuclear power to meet the vast electricity demands of AI.
Powell McCormick will play a central role in securing and managing those 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 served as president and head of global client services at investment firm BDT & MSD Partners.
She is expected to remain on BDT & MSD’s advisory board following her move to Meta.
Her appointment also reflects Meta’s growing engagement with governments as scrutiny of AI, data centres and energy use intensifies. Powell McCormick previously served as deputy national security adviser during Trump’s first term and held senior roles 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 $20bn expansion of data centre capacity near Memphis, and OpenAI-backed projects seeking to reshape global computing power.
