Why Meta Hiring Former Trump Advisor Dina Powell McCormick as President Signals a Big Shift in AI

Meta has taken a major step in strengthening its leadership department by hiring Dina Powell McCormick. The tech giant hired her as the new President and Vice Chair of its AI team. Dina is a former advisor to Donald Trump, with an extensive background in finance, government, and international relations. To recall, Powell briefly joined Meta’s board in April last year, Nevertheless, she resigned from her position in December, as per filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Who is Dina Powell McCormick?

Dina Powell McCormick has 16 years of experience in senior leadership roles at Goldman Sachs. She most recently served as an executive at BDT & MSD Partners. Additionally, her experience also includes one of the major breakthrough in her career when she was appointed as a deputy national security advisor under President Donald Trump. She also worked under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during President George W. Bush’s administration.

What Mark Zuckerberg says About Dina Powell McCormick?

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted that her experience will contribute in Meta’s next phase of growth. With her global relationships and experience in finance, she will be able to help Meta in future advancements.

Not only this, former President Trump also praised her appointment on his social media platform, calling her “fantastic” and commending her service in his administration.

Meta Introduced Meta Compute

Alongside Powell McCormick’s appointment, Zuckerberg introduced a major AI infrastructure initiative called Meta Compute. This new project focuses on Meta’s ongoing investment in data centers and AI capabilities. Meta Compute is launched to compete with industry giants like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Meta Compute follows company’s plan of building tens of gigawtts of computing power this decade. The tech giant has a long-term plan of coming up with hundreds of gigawatss in future. This emphasizes how Meta is investing and partnering on the infrastructure will be a strategic advantage.

Hiring of Powell McCormick will play a pivotal role in this initiative. Reportedly, she will be partnering with governments and global stakeholders to support the deployment. Other than this, she will be helping in financing and expansion of Meta’s infrastructure. She will work closely with Santosh Janardhan, who manages Meta’s global data centers and network, and Daniel Gross, who oversees long-term capacity strategy and planning.

Meta’s Strategic Growth

Powell McCormick is the second Trump administration employee to be recently hired following Curtis Joseph Mahoney as Chief Legal Officer. These strategic acquisitions are an indicator that Meta is working towards enhancing the executive-level and expanding ambitious projects in AI and international infrastructure. Under the new leadership of Powell McCormick, Meta should manage complicated global environments and speed up its technological development in the competitive AI age.