Meta appoints AI "big steward": former Trump advisor named president, Zuckerberg assembles executive team to oversee data center investments

Meta is assembling an executive team to manage its multi-billion dollar data center projects to support its infrastructure investments needed for pursuing "super intelligence." This move highlights the aggressive bets on infrastructure by global tech giants in the AI race.

On Monday, December 12, Eastern Time, Meta announced the appointment of Dina Powell McCormick, a senior advisor during the first term of former U.S. President Donald Trump, as the company's President and Vice Chair, focusing on collaboration with government and investors on AI projects. Hours later, Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the promotion of two executives to lead an internal organization named Meta Compute, overseeing the company's global data centers and its supplier partnerships.

Zuckerberg had previously committed to investing $600 billion in infrastructure over the coming years and has sought tens of billions in external financing to support some projects. The new team will be responsible for overseeing these investments and raising more funds for future projects. The data center being built in Louisiana will have a scale of 5 gigawatts, and Zuckerberg stated its area is close to that of Manhattan.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday to congratulate Powell McCormick on her appointment, calling Zuckerberg's choice "excellent" and praising her as "an outstanding and highly talented individual who served the Trump administration with strength and excellence."

Powell McCormick joined Meta's board in April last year and unexpectedly resigned eight months later. She will return to Meta this week as President and Vice Chair, reporting directly to Zuckerberg. A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that she will guide the company's overall strategy, with a particular focus on AI infrastructure work.

McCormick image from Meta

A statement released by Meta on Monday stated that McCormick's "experience at the highest levels of global finance, along with her deep relationships worldwide, gives her a unique advantage to help Meta manage the next phase of growth as President and Vice Chair." Zuckerberg noted in a post that she will "particularly focus on collaborating with governments and sovereign entities."

Media reports describe Powell McCormick as "one of Wall Street's most senior female executives." Public records show that in McCormick's over 25-year career, she spent 16 years in senior leadership roles at Goldman Sachs, leading the firm's global sovereign investment banking business.

McCormick previously served as President and Global Head of Client Services at investment firm BDT & MSD Partners. Gregg Lemkau, Co-CEO of BDT & MSD Partners, revealed that after leaving the firm to join Meta, McCormick will continue to serve as a member of the advisory board of the company McCormick was born in Egypt and has held various positions in the U.S. government for over a decade. She served as Deputy National Security Advisor during Trump's first term and was also a senior advisor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Assistant Secretary of State during the George W. Bush administration. Her husband, Dave McCormick, is currently a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, winning a key Senate seat for the Republican Party in 2024.

McCormick is the second former Trump administration member appointed by Meta this month. Earlier this month, Meta hired Curtis Joseph Mahoney as Chief Legal Officer; Mahoney served as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative during Trump's first term.

Zuckerberg announced the establishment of a high-level organization called Meta Compute in a Facebook post on Monday. His post stated, "Meta plans to build tens of gigawatts (GW) over this decade, reaching hundreds of GW or more over time. How we design, invest in, and collaborate to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage."

This work will be led by Santosh Janardhan and Daniel Gross. Janardhan is the head of infrastructure at Meta. He will continue to oversee the technical architecture, software stack, chip projects, developer productivity, and the construction and operation of global data centers and networks, differing from the past as he now reports directly to Zuckerberg.

Gross joined Meta last summer during the recruitment of AI talent. He will lead a new team focused on capital strategy, vendor partnerships, industry analysis, planning, and building business models around Meta AI work. He will also report to Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg stated that Janardhan and Gross "will work closely with Dina Powell McCormick, who just joined Meta as President and Vice Chair, responsible for collaborating with governments and sovereign entities to build and deploy Meta's infrastructure and related investments and financing. I look forward to working closely with Daniel, Santosh, Dina, and their teams to expand Meta Compute and provide personal superintelligence to billions of people worldwide."

AI Competition Drives Infrastructure Investment Wave

Meta seeks to achieve "superintelligence," an AI system that surpasses humans in many tasks, and is actively investing in AI infrastructure. Meta is building several GW-level data centers across the United States, including a rural data center in Louisiana that Trump claimed would involve a $50 billion investment. This month, Meta also announced partnerships with energy companies such as Vistra Corp. and Oklo Inc., becoming one of the world's largest nuclear power procurement companies Meta is competing with major tech companies to develop AI-related infrastructure. OpenAI, Microsoft, and Oracle have committed to investing tens of billions of dollars to build large data center complexes. Musk's xAI is also spending heavily, recently announcing the construction of a third data center near Memphis, Tennessee, with an investment of $20 billion.

Last fall, Meta investors began to express concerns about the company's aggressive spending plans on AI infrastructure. On October 29, 2025, the same day Meta announced its third-quarter financial report, Zuckerberg stated that the company's annual spending would exceed the previously estimated $72 billion, causing Meta's stock price to drop more than 7% in after-hours trading. Over the past three months, Meta's stock price has cumulatively fallen nearly 9%.

This Monday, the appointment of Powell McCormick failed to alleviate investor concerns, with Meta's stock price dropping less than 0.9% at midday, likely retreating after a rebound last Friday, approaching the low set on December 12 of last week.

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