Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent letters Sunday night to the CEOs of Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft, shared exclusively with CNBC, pressing for details on tax deductions tied to AI and data center buildouts and on the companies' lobbying efforts before the 2025 legislation passed. Sens. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., also signed. The companies were given until Oct. 12 to respond.
The letters focus on incentives embedded in the 2025 budget-and-tax law Republicans advanced at President Donald Trump's request, which the senators label the "one big beautiful bill" act. The group wrote, "Americans across the country are worried about the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on their lives - from increased utility bills to threats of job losses and cyberattacks." They argued that instead of reining in major tech firms, Republicans "have passed tax subsidies for AI development and AI data centers."
Warren has earlier advocated raising levies on AI firms and data-center builders and examined ties between private equity and the data-center industry. In their note to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the lawmakers wrote, "This enormous tax cut appears to have been driven in significant part by President Trump and Republicans' tax breaks subsidizing your spending on AI," adding that Meta's capital spending - the "vast majority" of which they described as "data center construction and other AI spending" - totaled $72 billion in the prior year, and they said a large portion may have qualified for immediate expensing under OBBBA's corporate provisions. They also wrote, "Your company has spent lavishly to stay on the good side of President Trump, and it appears that you are now seeing your investment bear fruit."
Warren's Monday letter came after reports noting a decline in corporate tax payments this year despite rising revenues, and it attributes the slide to companies tapping AI-related incentives. It says corporate tax payments have fallen 25 percent this year, citing Politico's reporting that quotes budget forecasters. In February, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected federal corporate income tax receipts would be 10.6% lower in 2026 than the year before, with totals shrinking to $404 billion from $452 billion.
Meta's federal income tax bill was $2.8 billion for 2025; in 2024 it was $9.6 billion, and profits were roughly unchanged across the two years. They further note that Amazon's federal income taxes dropped almost $8 billion between fiscal 2024 and 2025. For Alphabet, the current tax expense at the federal and state level together decreased by more than $7 billion in the same span.
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The letters also note Amazon, Meta and Microsoft rank as the top three U.S. data center operators by active IT capacity, according to ABI Research, with Google Cloud, part of Alphabet, ranked 10th. The lawmakers also pointed out that each company contributed $1 million to Trump's inauguration and poured millions into lobbying Congress and federal agencies ahead of the 2025 package's passage.
This probe lands as Washington tries to get its arms around AI and the rapid buildout of data centers, with public pushback intensifying ahead of the 2026 midterms. Democrats want to recapture the House and Senate, though most outlooks still have Republicans favored to keep control of the Senate. Democratic 2028 hopefuls such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom have weighed in with statements and executive orders. And among Democratic candidates criticizing GOP rivals for backing data centers are Texas state lawmaker James Talarico, the party's Senate nominee, and Sherrod Brown, the Democrat running for Senate in Ohio.
Republicans, for their part, have faulted Senate Democrats for slowing swift passage of a bill that would give states a framework to address higher utility costs tied to data centers. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., blocked the measure, saying it did not sufficiently protect consumers. The Ratepayer Protection Act could get another look in the Senate this week.
Requests for comment to Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft went unanswered as of publication. There was likewise no immediate response from the White House.
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