Cortez Masto, Wyden, Whitehouse Question Meta’s Use of Billions in Tax Credits to Subsidize AI Data Center Construction

Las Vegas, Nev. – U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) called on Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to justify its use of billions in federal research and development (R&D) tax credits to fund its rapid buildout of AI data centers in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to recent reporting , Meta claimed its AI data centers are experimental “pilot models,” and therefore eligible for federal R&D tax credits. These tax credits are intended to incentivize experimental research, not to scale up existing infrastructure. As Meta spends billions of dollars on AI data centers, its R&D tax credits have grown from $700 million in 2023 to $4 billion in 2025. “The federal research credit can be a useful and necessary tool to support our nation’s innovation economy and cutting-edge research,” the Senators wrote. “Subsidizing your A.I. data center build is not close to meeting this standard.” If the reporting is accurate, Meta’s R&D tax credit claims would represent more than ten percent of all research tax credits claimed in the U.S., based on Joint Committee on Taxation figures . “Any effort by Meta to use A.I. data center expansion as eligible for research credits is potentially a significant misapplication of federal tax law that merits further investigation,” the Senators continued. Meta has a long record of attempting to lower its tax bill through dubious tax credit claims. In 2013, Meta claimed that $4.1 billion Zuckerberg received by exercising stock options should be eligible for research credits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) challenged that claim and is seeking $355 million in back taxes from Meta. The Senators demanded that Meta provide the following information: Whether Meta has claimed R&D tax credits related to the buildout and operation of its AI data centers and, if so, its legal justification for doing so; Whether Meta has claimed to the IRS on federal tax filings that its AI data centers are “pilot models” in order to qualify for federal R&D tax credits; Whether Meta posits that expenses related to AI data centers are eligible for R&D tax credits while those related to non-AI data centers are not and, if so, its legal justification for doing so; Whether Meta consulted with experts from professional accounting firms prior to claiming federal R&D tax credits and, if so, whether the firms advised it to claim the tax credits; and How much of the $6.6 billion in federal R&D tax credits Meta claimed from 2023 to 2025 was related to the construction or operation of AI data centers. Senators Cortez Masto, Wyden, Whitehouse, Warren, and Hassan were joined in the letter by Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). The full text of the letter can be found here . Senator Cortez Masto has worked to ensure that regulations concerning AI innovation and use take privacy, national security, and environmental considerations into account . She urged the CEOs of Spirit Airlines and Google to protect the privacy of former Spirit employees as the airline plans to sell employee data to train Google AI. Last year, Cortez Masto’s legislation to prohibit American investment in Chinese AI companies was passed into law. When President Xi Jinping visited the U.S., she urged President Trump to negotiate a formal agreement with him for the development, testing, and use of AI models. Cortez Masto voted against a Republican bill that claimed to regulate AI data centers but was entirely voluntary and instead pushed for legislation with real teeth. ###