Warren Probes Tax Breaks for Tech Giants' AI Spending
US Senator Elizabeth Warren has launched an investigation into tax breaks for major tech companies Amazon, Meta, Alphabet (Google), and Microsoft. The inquiry centers around the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) of 2025, which provided tax subsidies for AI development and data-center construction.
The senators are seeking detailed information on how much each company's federal tax bill decreased after the 2025 tax overhaul, as well as how much of that relief came from AI investments. They want a breakdown of which specific provisions in the law reduced each company's tax burden and whether company lobbyists pushed for those provisions before the bill became law.
According to the letters, Microsoft's federal income-tax expense fell by over $11 billion between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026, Amazon's federal income-tax bill dropped by nearly $8 billion in fiscal 2025 compared to the prior year, and Alphabet's combined current federal and state income-tax expense decreased by more than $7 billion over the same period.
The senators argue that taxpayers are effectively subsidizing AI infrastructure spending through their tax dollars. They claim that the companies are taking advantage of tax breaks while residents near major AI facilities face higher electricity and water bills due to increased demand from data centers.