Exclusive: Meta data center credits draw congressional scrutiny

It’s the latest sign of Congress responding to widespread voter backlash to the AI buildout. A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is raising concerns with the Treasury Department about reports that Meta is claiming a research tax credit for its data center buildout, according to a letter shared first to Semafor. “We are concerned by Meta’s apparent position that expenditures associated with its massive data-center buildout qualify for the research credit,” wrote Reps. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., Greg Steube, R-Fla., Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., along with two dozen other lawmakers.

It’s the latest sign of Congress responding to widespread voter backlash to the AI buildout. The lawmakers argue that allowing the tax credit to be used for data center development and construction would “significantly expand the research credit beyond its intended purpose and risk converting an incentive for technological experimentation into a subsidy for capital expenditures that companies would undertake in the ordinary course of business.” The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said that the new AI-optimized data centers “require extensive testing and experimentation that cannot be simulated in order to get the design and build right. This is precisely the kind of domestic investment Congress encouraged when it established these tax incentives decades ago.”