Meta appoints Wall Street dealmaker Dina Powell McCormick to drive $600B AI infrastructure push

Meta Taps Former Trump Adviser for New Role Driving AI Buildout

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, a former Goldman Sachs executive, is joining the company this week as president and vice chairman. She's part of a new team of senior executives that will focus on the company's growing list of expensive data center projects -- a group that will help steward the hundreds of billions it plans to investment into artificial intelligence infrastructure as it pursues "superintelligence." She will report to Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta taps Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chairman

Why it matters: Powell McCormick's connections to the global finance community have put her at the center of dealmaking across industries that matter to Meta in the AI era, such as energy and tech infrastructure. * "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 as the company's President and Vice Chairman," Zuckerberg said in a statement. * In a separate post, Zuckerberg said Powell McCormick "will be involved in all of Meta's work, with a particular focus on partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta's AI and infrastructure." * She was a Meta board member from April to December last year. Zoom in: Powell McCormick will join Meta's management team, helping guide the company's overall strategy and execution, the company said. * "She will partner with the compute and infrastructure teams to ensure our multi-billion-dollar investments execute against our goals and drive positive economic impact in the communities where we operate around the world," Meta said in a statement. * "And, she will drive an effort to build new strategic capital partnerships and find innovative ways to expand our long-term investment capacity." JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement to Axios: "I've known Dina for about 20 years and run into her all over the world. She's an exceptional banker with superb relationships. Clients have deep respect for her given her knowledge, experience ability to execute and deliver, and the fact she works so hard." * "She is a better banker and has more or better relationships than many big finance CEOs," Dimon added. Catch up quick: Powell McCormick joins Meta from BDT & MSD Partners, a powerful merchant bank based in Chicago. She previously spent 16 years in senior leadership roles at Goldman Sachs. * She served as deputy national security adviser to President Trump in his first term, and was an assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush. * She is married to Sen. David McCormick (R-Pa.). Of note: Powell McCormick's old firm was rumored to be tied to the deal to sell TikTok. * Tech entrepreneur Michael Dell of BDT & MSD Partners was expected to be among the U.S. investors who would be part of the potential deal for TikTok, Trump said in September. * That could still be the case. There's a 5% stake that has yet to be named, according to TikTok's most recent divestiture announcement. * In a statement, Gregg Lemkau, co-CEO of BDT & MSD Partners, said Powell McCormick "has been an extraordinary leader at our firm, and we are incredibly proud of her appointment as President of Meta, reflecting the depth of her experience and judgment. We are delighted that she will continue her work with us as a member of our Advisory Board." The big picture: Powell McCormick's hiring reflects a new era for Meta, one where it's focused on building new tech, instead of simply maintaining its legacy ad business and defending itself against policy critics.

Zuckerberg names banker, ex-Trump advisor as Meta president

San Francisco (United States) (AFP) - Meta on Monday appointed banker Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chairman, tapping a former member of the Trump administration to help steer the technology giant's massive AI infrastructure expansion. Powell McCormick, who served on Meta's board, will join the company's management team as it scales what founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as "the massive physical and financial model that will power the next decade of computing." "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," Zuckerberg said. In a separate post, Zuckerberg said Powell McCormick "will be involved in all of Meta's work, with a particular focus on partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta's AI and infrastructure." The appointment comes as Meta accelerates investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, including data centers and energy supply. In her new role at Meta, Powell McCormick's banking experience will be key. She will help guide the company's overall AI infrastructure strategy and oversee its multi-billion-dollar investments. She will also focus on building partnerships to expand the company's investment capacity, the company said, as Meta seeks to keep up with its big tech rivals in spending massively on AI. An Egyptian-American, Powell McCormick spent 16 years as a partner at Goldman Sachs, serving on the firm's management committee and leading its global sovereign investment banking business. Sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East have become major investors in the AI infrastructure build-out and could play a role in Meta achieving its AI spending goals. Her last job was at BDT & MSD Partners, a bank and advisory firm that has been involved in finding US investors for TikTok, according to news outlet Axios. Her hiring continues Zuckerberg's political pivot to the right, with Republican Powell McCormick one of the company's most visible arrivals since Sheryl Sandberg, the former chief operating officer and member of the Clinton administration who left in 2022. Zuckerberg has recently made a visible shift toward President Donald Trump and conservative positions, doing away with third-party fact-checking, reversing company diversity initiatives and embracing a more traditionally masculine image. Trump congratulated Powell McCormick on the appointment in a social media post, calling her "a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction." Powell McCormick served as deputy national security advisor during Trump's first term, a role in which she helped shape US foreign policy. She is married to the Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick.

Meta Picks Former White House Advisor to Drive AI Projects | PYMNTS.com

"Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook Monday (Jan. 12). "How we engineer, invest, and partner to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage." Zuckerberg made that announcement soon after revealing Meta had appointed Dina Powell McCormick, a one-time top adviser to President Donald Trump, to a newly created senior management position focused on collaborating with governments and investors on artificial intelligence (AI) projects. In addition, the company has promoted a pair of executives to run its "Meta Compute" data center project. Santosh Janardhan, Meta's head of infrastructure, will continue overseeing the company's fleet of data centers and their technical architecture. Meanwhile Daniel Gross, one of the co-founders of Safe Superintelligence who joined Meta last year, will oversee a new group focused on "long-term capacity strategy, supplier partnerships, industry analysis, planning, and business modeling," Zuckerberg wrote. Powell McCormick, herself a former member of Meta's board, will become a new president and vice chairman to "work on partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta's infrastructure," the CEO added. In related news, Meta last week inked agreements with three nuclear energy companies to help power its data centers. The company said the agreements with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo, along with one signed with Constellation Energy last year, make Meta one of the top buyers of nuclear energy in the United States. "State-of-the-art data centers and AI infrastructure are essential to securing America's position as a global leader in AI," Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, said in a news release. "Nuclear energy will help power our AI future, strengthen our country's energy infrastructure, and provide clean, reliable electricity for everyone." Meta also recently Meta acquired Manus, an AI startup that offers a consumer-facing assistant with millions of paying users, for upwards of $2 billion. "By acquiring Manus, Meta gains technology and distribution, along with immediate exposure to subscription revenue and insight into consumer willingness to pay for AI-powered assistance," PYMNTS wrote last month. "The transaction also shortens the timeline for rolling out premium AI offerings without having to build a paid user base from scratch."

Meta taps Wall Street dealmaker Dina Powell McCormick as company's...

Meta has landed one of Wall Street's most connected dealmakers. Dina Powell McCormick, the former Goldman Sachs executive with deep ties to large pools of capital, and leaders around the world, who has advised two US presidents, is joining as the company's first-ever president and vice chairman. Powell McCormick, who spent decades cultivating relationships with sovereign wealth funds at Goldman Sachs, is expected to focus on securing strategic partnerships and overseeing Meta's $600 billion infrastructure buildout over the next decade. And that is welcome news to investors. The deal signals that Meta -- which has been spending billions on AI talent over the last year -- is now open to global partnerships and capital. "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 as the company's President and Vice Chairman," said Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The move comes as the company aims to keep pace in the AI arms race. Meta has shelled out billions -- including a nearly $15 billion deal with Scale AI's Alexandr Wang for data labeling and other major AI investments -- but investors want to see Meta tap into outside capital and prioritize the kind of strategic partnerships that its competitors are pursuing. Over the last year, Nvidia, OpenAI, and xAI have aggressively pursued high-stakes partnerships and investments in the Middle East, capitalizing on the region's sovereign wealth funds, energy resources, and ambitions to become AI hubs amid a global scramble for compute power and rare earths. Powell McCormick began working with Zuckerberg after she joined the Meta board -- which includes Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen and UFC president Dana White -- in April 2025. She left the board last month ahead of taking on her new role. She is leaving her position as vice chairman, president and head of global clients services at BDT & MSD Partners but will remain on the firm's advisory board. Powell McCormick is married to David McCormick, the former CEO of Bridgewater Associates who is now a republican Senator from Pennsylvania. Powell McCormick immigrated to the US from Egypt with her family at age six, not speaking a word of English. She went on to serve in two presidential administrations -- as Deputy National Security Advisor during President Trump's first term, when she worked on the foundations that led to the Abraham Accords, and in the George W. Bush administration -- before rising to partner at Goldman Sachs. There, she ran the firm's sovereign wealth fund business and played a key role in launching Goldman's 10,000 Women and 10,000 Small Businesses initiatives, which provide entrepreneurs with business education, mentorship, and access to capital. Powell McCormick is widely respected by her peers on Wall Street. When she received the ABANA Achievement Award earlier this year, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde called her "the fearless woman who acts on the global scene as a bridge between the East and West." Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said she has been "invaluable to leaders and countries all over the world," while Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman noted that "wherever Dina goes, she is enormously successful." Earlier this year, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said, "I've known Dina for about 20 years and run into her all over the world. She's an exceptional banker with superb relationships. Clients have deep respect for her given her knowledge, experience (international, on boards, in government), ability to execute and deliver, and the fact she works so hard. "She is a better banker and has more or better relationships than many big finance CEOs. She's the full package -- doing it all at the most senior levels. To sum up, she's a first-class banker, who combines amazing relationships, execution, smarts, character and hard work."