Meta Platforms Inc. has appointed a former top adviser to US President Donald Trump to a newly created senior management role focused on partnering with governments and investors on AI.
Dina Powell McCormick, who resigned from Meta’s board in December, is joining the company this week as president and vice chairman. She will guide overall strategy with a particular focus on Meta’s AI infrastructure efforts, according to a statement published Monday. The former Goldman Sachs executive will help build and maintain strategic capital partnerships, which Meta will rely on to fund massive data center projects and propel its artificial intelligence efforts.
“Dina’s experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth,” Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.
Powell McCormick is familiar with Meta. She joined the company’s board of directors last April but unexpectedly resigned just eight months later. She will report to Zuckerberg in her new role, a spokesperson confirmed.
Meta has invested aggressively in AI infrastructure as it pursues “superintelligence” — AI systems that can outperform humans at many tasks. The company is building several gigawatt-sized data centers around the country, including one in rural Louisiana that Trump said would cost $50 billion. Meta says it plans to scale that Louisiana data center to 5 gigawatts, a structure Zuckerberg has described as nearly the size of Manhattan. And this month, Meta announced partnerships with energy companies to become one of the world’s biggest corporate buyers of nuclear power.
Zuckerberg has pledged to spend $600 billion on infrastructure over the next several years, and Meta has already sought tens of billions of dollars in external financing to help pay for some of the projects.
