Meta Slashes Metaverse Jobs and Names Ex-Trump Adviser Dina Powell McCormick President

Meta Platforms announced the appointment of former Trump adviser Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chairman in the company's official newsletter. The leadership change came as Meta doubled down on AI infrastructure and moved forward with its attempt to strengthen relations with the Trump administration.

Over the past year, Meta has been making changes that signal the company's closer ties to Trump, from whom the social media giant seeks support as the company accelerates its 'pursuit of frontier AI and personal superintelligence.'

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Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said of the reason behind Powell McCormick's appointment in Meta's official newsletter: 'Dina's experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth as the company's President and Vice Chairman.'

President Donald Trump posted a congratulatory message for Zuckerberg on social media Monday, praising Powell McCormick, describing her as a 'fantastic, and very talented, person,' per a Wall Street Journal report.

The report also sheds light on Meta's massive $27-billion (£20 billion) data centre project in Louisiana, part of its heavy AI infrastructure investments, which started construction last year, and on Meta's deal with US-based nuclear power projects to provide electricity for its data centres.

Meta's AI Challenges

2025 was a tough year for Meta's AI division, facing challenges one after another, forcing repeated restructuring and downsizing, with layoffs in its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab reported in October, resulting in Meta scientist Yann LeCun's resignation. The challenges forced Meta to delay the Project Avocado release, which was initially targeted for late 2025, to Q1 of 2026.

As part of its aggressive AI strategy, Meta developed and rolled out its proprietary large language models (LLMs) under the brand Llama (Large Language Model Meta AI), which received criticisms in its licensing terms and received legal questions, such as copyright issues (which were later ruled out in Meta's favour).

Llama's poor performance led Meta to adopt a different AI model, Avocado, despite Zuckerberg's reported optimism about Llama. In a CNBC report, Meta hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, along with his top engineers and researchers, in June in a $14.3 billion (£10.62 billion) investment.

Metaverse, Reality Labs Layoffs

On Monday, The New York Times reported that Meta plans to reduce the workforce of its Reality Labs division by roughly 10%. The division, with about 15,000 employees, focuses on metaverse projects and virtual reality (VR). The layoffs align with Zuckerberg's decision to reallocate funds to AI research and to ask top executives to trim their 2026 budgets.

Despite Meta saying it refuses to give up on the metaverse, the social media giant seems to be heading in that direction. While the metaverse continues to receive support, the layoffs show that funding will be greatly geared towards Meta's AI projects. The metaverse gave us Meta's Ray-Ban sunglasses, which turned out to be a hit, selling millions in recent years.

Looking Ahead: Meta's AI Future

Powell McCormick's role at Meta mirrors the strategies of Sheryl Sandberg, the former Chief Operating Officer of Meta. Sandberg helped Meta manage legislative scrutiny by capitalising on her ties to Washington, according to Reuters. Her appointment is a significant leadership move and a strategic change at the social media titan, leveraging her deep finance and government roots.

Reuters also reports that critics, including Tech Oversight Project executive director Sacha Haworth, are suggesting that Powell McCormick's husband, U.S. Senator David McCormick of Pennsylvania, who chairs a Senate subcommittee on energy policy, 'should recuse himself from every vote or committee action that involves Meta's business.'