On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Meta has been treating its AI data centers as experimental facilities to claim billions of dollars in federal research tax credits, a strategy the company’s own accountants reportedly flagged as legally risky. The savings reportedly grew from $700 million in 2023 to $3.9 billion in 2025.
How can a company worth $1.8 trillion be worried about saving $3.9 billion? Well, because the priorities of any publicly traded company are profits, then stock price, then market cap, then penny-pinching, and then the cycle repeats.
The Meta story underscores something simple: the people building the most powerful technology on Earth will push the rules when money is on the line.
