Six Senate Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have asked the chief executives of Meta, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft to disclose how much their companies deducted for artificial-intelligence and data-center spending under the 2025 Republican tax-and-spending law. The letters, dated Sept. 27, went out Sunday night. CNBC (opens in new tab) first reported them on Monday, and Warren’s office released them the same day.
Sens. Tina Smith, Jeff Merkley, Elissa Slotkin, Bernie Sanders and Richard Blumenthal signed the letters with Warren, according to the letters. Each letter asks the company to report deductions tied to AI and data-center development and to describe any lobbying it did before the law, widely known as the “one big beautiful bill,” was enacted. The senators asked for answers by Oct. 11, according to Warren’s release and the letters.
The lawmakers cite securities filings that they say show sharply lower tax bills. According to the letters, Microsoft’s current federal income tax expense fell by more than $11 billion from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2026, Amazon’s fell by nearly $8 billion from 2024 to 2025, and Alphabet’s combined current federal and state income tax expense fell by more than $7 billion over the same period. Meta’s current federal income tax expense dropped from $9.6 billion in 2024 to $2.8 billion in 2025, even as its pretax income rose $15.3 billion, the letter says. The letters say pretax income also rose at the other three companies.
The senators attribute much of that decline to provisions that let companies write off equipment and other capital spending immediately. In the letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they wrote that the company’s capital spending reached $72 billion last year, the “vast majority” of it on data centers and other AI work, and that Meta may have been able to deduct much of it right away under the law. The letters also say each company gave $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration and spent millions lobbying Congress and federal agencies before the bill passed. “Your company has spent lavishly to stay on the good side of President Trump,” the senators wrote.
The White House rejected that framing. Spokesperson Kush Desai told CNBC (opens in new tab) that the law’s pro-growth provisions are “driving historic job, investment, and wage growth” across industries, and said Democrats were “more sour about President Trump winning than they are happy for American workers and families.” None of the four companies responded to CNBC (opens in new tab)’s requests for comment.
The letters are requests for information and do not accuse any company of breaking the law. Citing Politico’s reporting, the letters say corporate tax revenue has fallen 25% this year, or $96 billion, and they attribute much of that drop to tax breaks for AI spending. As separate context, CNBC (opens in new tab) noted that the Congressional Budget Office projected in February that federal corporate income tax collections would fall 10.6% in 2026, from $452 billion to $404 billion. CNBC (opens in new tab) placed the letters within a wider midterm-season fight over data centers, rising utility costs and how to regulate AI.