Meta's Dina Powell McCormick: The Case for Data Centers, Backlash, AI Job Boom & Meta's Future

Chamath Palihapitiya (0:00)

A trailblazing leader in government, business and philanthropy.

SPEAKER_2 (0:04)

A former presidential advisor to Donald Trump, Dina Powell McCormick, joined Meta platforms as president and vice chairwoman.

SPEAKER_3 (0:11)

She'll help lead the company's massive AI expansion, including data centers, investments and global partnerships.

SPEAKER_4 (0:17)

Powell McCormick's background is exactly where Meta's new bottlenecks are.

Dina Powell McCormick (0:21)

There is a transformation in humanity coming. Nothing can stop that now with this technology. 3.5 billion people every day are on Meta. I think we all know that the next three years could be the whole game. Women are the secret sauce.

How about that?

Jason Calacanis (0:39)

Please welcome Dina Powell McCormick.

Dina, thank you for being here. You know, we were just finishing up a conversation with Satya about how do we tell the story about the benefit of data centers and what they're doing to communities and why they're actually net economically positive. And I know you, so I'm going to get right into it, because I know you actually have a video on this. Do you want to just start with your video? Would that be okay?

Dina Powell McCormick (1:32)

That would be great. I mean, I just want to say, so psyched to be at the All-In Summit. First time to speak. And as long as this episode and panel gets way more listeners and views than Senator McCormick's did when he came on, I'll be very, very happy with that. So now we can roll the tape. No competition. Good.

Jason Calacanis (1:50)

We'll put it on PolyMarket. Let's watch the video.

SPEAKER_9 (1:57)

Ritual Parish was the place that Opportunity forgot about.

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I've grown up here my whole life.

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And I've seen a lot of people move away looking for work, including my son.

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What you were hearing a lot lately was, there's nothing here for us anymore.

SPEAKER_11 (2:45)

We started this business simply because Meta was coming.

SPEAKER_8 (2:52)

We thought we had hit it big when we got to cater for 40 people, now we do 400 a week. Since Meta came to town, we've hired more employees.

Sheldon Vince (3:03)

A multi-billion dollar capital investment like the one that Meta is making in Richland Parish is, it was transformative. It's extremely exciting to attract and retain quality teachers.

SPEAKER_8 (3:19)

So when I first got the news about the bonus, it was jaw-dropping. My mouth was literally wide open. We're not in it for the money. We're teachers because it's in our heart. But the bonus has been extremely helpful.

Sheldon Vince (3:33)

With the investment that Meta has made in our community, now we can do a better job of taking care of our home.

SPEAKER_8 (3:40)

I do feel a lot of hope for the future of my students.

SPEAKER_10 (3:42)

It gives them the opportunity if they never thought that they would have.

SPEAKER_11 (3:47)

And I would say one of the biggest things is people coming back home.

Susan Satterfield (3:54)

You know, the future is happening here and happening now.

Jason Calacanis (4:11)

You have some folks from the video here.

Dina Powell McCormick (4:13)

Can we bring them out?

Susan Satterfield (4:14)

Come on out.

Dina Powell McCormick (4:15)

Sheldon and Susan, we have the superintendent from that video, the superintendent in Richland Parish.

Jason Calacanis (4:28)

Thanks for joining us.

Pleasure. Hi, sir.

SPEAKER_14 (4:32)

Thanks for joining us.

Chamath Palihapitiya (4:33)

Hi, Sheldon.

Jason Calacanis (4:34)

How are you? Come on down.

Good to meet you. How are you? Thank you for being here.

Susan Satterfield (4:41)

Thanks for having us.

Jason Calacanis (4:42)

You want to do an introduction?

Dina Powell McCormick (4:43)

Sure. What an honor. It's an honor for me to be here with Sheldon and Susan.

We spent a lot of time in Louisiana. It's our largest data center investment for Meta. I've been with them in Louisiana. What is remarkable to me is just the leadership that frankly, the governor has shown. Susan is the Commerce Secretary for Louisiana, the Economic Development Secretary, and Sheldon, who I'm going to let him speak for himself, but he is such an inspirational figure there. He is the one that realized that because of our investment, the tax surplus would go straight to teachers. Maybe you can talk just a little bit about that.

Sheldon Vince (5:25)

It's great to be here. I just think back to my first interaction with Meta.

It was in the summer of 2024

It was at our local community college, and I just remember after the meeting, getting in my car, and it's hot in Louisiana, so I turned the air on, and I just sat there and I said, the game has changed. This is going to give our parish an opportunity to do something that it's never been able to do. So when the groundbreaking ceremony happened in December of 2024, I could immediately start to see the increase in our sales tax collections. There are six taxing entities in our parish. The Richland Parish School Board collects 51 percent of the taxes for the district. So I was able to see the sales tax collections go from 5 percent, 10 percent, which is normal for a school system, to about 60 or 70 percent. At that time, the number of workers at the data center site increased. Those collections peaked at about 260 percent. That's an increase in sales tax collections.