Full episode · 44 min
Meta's Dina Powell McCormick: The Case for Data Centers, Backlash, AI Job Boom & Meta’s Future
Dina Powell McCormick argues that data centers can benefit communities when companies share the gains and address local concerns.
All-In · Chamath Palihapitiya & Jason Calacanis & David Sacks & David Friedberg
- Dina Powell McCormick is president and vice chairwoman of Meta Platforms.
The best minutes
- 5:19Meta's Louisiana data center sharply increased local school revenue7 min
- 11:46Meta's data center deal pays for power and uses less water6 min
- 21:00A paid training path is filling data center trade jobs5 min
Also worth watching
- 27:34Meta agreed to cap teen use at two hours in sign-on states3 min
- 41:19Meta argues broad AI access can make society more stable2 min
- 35:25Blind veterans helped shape accessibility features for Meta glasses5 min
- 33:11Time-based AI rewards can drive app engagement loops2 min
Skip the five-minute opener and Richland Parish video, workforce recruitment and promo, and the post-agreement app-controls exchange.
Summary · 3 min read
McCormick joined Meta Platforms as president and vice chairwoman, where she is helping lead its AI expansion, data-center investments and global partnerships. The introduction describes her as a leader in government, business and philanthropy; she also says she previously served as deputy national security advisor and as an adviser to Donald Trump.
McCormick argues that data centers can bring investment and jobs to rural communities when companies work with local partners, address resource concerns and explain their commitments. She points to Louisiana tax revenue for teacher checks and Meta’s workforce training program as examples of local benefits. On teen safety, she describes an agreement with 52 attorneys general that sets daily use limits in participating states and says broader limits could follow if other platforms join. She also makes the case for Meta’s glasses as an everyday, hands-free AI interface and says Mark Zuckerberg believes broad access to AI can benefit people and society.
Minute by minute
- 1:51Meta investment changes Richland Parish
Residents in the video describe new business activity, people returning home and hope for local schools after Meta’s multibillion-dollar investment. Superintendent Sheldon says sales-tax collections rose from typical annual growth of 5% to 10% to peaks around 260%; he says certified employees received a $50,000 check and the net gain for teachers was about $45,000.
- 8:02Louisiana sets a partnership standard
The superintendent says the community initially faced uncertainty, while McCormick describes Richland Parish as starved for opportunity, with average wages of roughly $36,000 to $38,000 before the investment. Louisiana officials say Meta’s arrangement became a prototype: McCormick says the company chose a more efficient system that uses less water than the farmland did and paid for its own generation, grid upgrades, resilience and storm costs.
- 14:30McCormick calls for clearer communication
McCormick says communities should be able to reject a data center and Meta needs to explain its local commitments, including efforts to reduce electricity costs and water use. She says the industry has communicated poorly and cites intelligence committee leaders’ belief that adversaries may be fomenting opposition, while saying she could not comment on that evidence. In her view, stopping US data-center construction would hinder the country’s AI ambitions.
- 19:54Training connects workers to open jobs
McCormick says the five-week America’s Workforce Academy had 40,000 applicants, 250 graduates and a 90% retention rate. Meta guarantees graduates a job at one of its data-center sites, and she says the program pays trainees during training to help people who cannot afford unpaid instruction enter skilled-trade work.
- 26:49Meta sets teen-use limits in a state deal
Jason Calacanis challenged Meta’s past handling of teen safety and asked how its product culture had changed; McCormick rejected his premise and described an agreement with 52 bipartisan attorneys general. In participating states, she said, users under 18 would face a two-hour daily limit, nighttime shutoffs and no school-day notifications. She said Meta would offer an additional $5 billion and a one-hour limit if YouTube, TikTok and Snap joined.
- 34:18Time-based rewards can deepen engagement
Jason Calacanis says social apps had optimized for time spent and argues Meta and YouTube became too effective at holding users’ attention. Chamath Palihapitiya warns that an AI optimizing any app for time spent could intensify that incentive unless companies set limits. McCormick says the issue should inform future product decisions.
- 35:25Glasses offer hands-free AI uses
McCormick says Meta’s glasses support everyday uses such as music, calls, conversation focus and translation, and argues that people want hands-free technology that keeps them in the world around them. She describes blind veterans helping shape features, including one veteran who used the glasses to read scripture and call his son independently.
- 41:19Zuckerberg backs broad AI access
McCormick says safety is paramount, but that Mark Zuckerberg believes wider AI access can expand education, health care and learning and contribute to a more stable society. She cites 3.6 billion daily users and 200 million small-business owners on Meta’s platforms, and says the company had recently introduced what she called the first American open-source model.
Published Sep 17, 2026.
Transcript · 34 min read
All-In, hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks and David Friedberg, with Dina Powell McCormick.
Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.
A trailblazing leader in government, business, and philanthropy. A former presidential advisor to Donald Trump, Dina Powell McCormick joined Meta Platforms as president and vice chairwoman. She'll help lead the company's massive AI expansion, including data centers, investments, and global partnerships. Powell-McCormick's background is exactly where Meta's new bottlenecks are. 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? Please welcome Dina Powell McCormick. Dina, thank you for being here. um 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 that'd be great i mean i just want to say so psyched uh 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. We'll put it on Polymarket. Let's watch the video.
Richland Parish was the place that opportunity forgot about. i've grown up here my whole life and i've seen a lot of people move away looking for work including my son what you were hearing a lot lately was there's nothing here for us anymore We knew that having a data center would give us an industry here that we haven't had before. That's a huge investment in our community. We started this business simply because metal was coming. We thought we'd 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. A multi-billion dollar capital investment like the one that Meta is making in Ridgeland Parish is, it was transformative.
Read the whole transcript
It's extremely exciting to attract and retain quality teachers. 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. With the investment that META has made in our community, now we can do a better job of taking care of all of them. I do feel a lot of hope for the future of my students. It gives them the opportunity that they never thought that they would have. And I would say one of the biggest things is people coming back home. You know, the future is happening here and happening now.
You have some folks from the video here? Can they come on out? Come on out. Sheldon and Susan, we have the superintendent from that video, the superintendent in Richland Parish. Thanks for joining us. Pleasure. Hi, sir. Thanks for joining us. Hi, Sheldon. How are you? Come on down. Good to meet you. How are you? Thank you for being here. Thanks for having us. You want to do an introduction? Sure. What an honor. It's an honor for me to be here with Sheldon and Susan. We've spent a lot of time in Louisiana. It's our largest data center investment for Meta. And I've been with them in Louisiana. And 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. And he is the one that realized that because of our investment, the tax surplus would go straight to teachers. And maybe you could talk just a little bit about that.
“The average wages in Richland Parish were roughly $36,000, $38,000 a year prior to this investment.”
“But that we actually have to upfront and way more aggressively explain what our investment and partnership means.”
The water one is the one that's just confounding that narrative keeps staying alive. I think you did an amazing job. There's a clip on X of this woman with this bottle of dirty water that she trucks around and you're just like, there's no... You know what I love? that it's a federated republic that the founders designed, and some states are going to win, some states are going to be idiots, and they're going to lose, and, you know, you guys are going to have this incredible economic advantage. Yeah, I do want to add to Dina's point as well, just as the teachers are calling Sheldon to consider going to his parish to teach, the minute that got announced, that y'all were giving $50,000 bonuses, I can't tell you how many leaders of rural parishes in Louisiana called me and said, Secretary, do y'all have any who are considering our parish, please bring one here. So the global narrative is not happening in Louisiana. Frankly, I don't believe it's happening everywhere the way the propaganda says.
Are there teachers calling you from across the country, like other states, saying, is this real? How did this work? And starting to kind of lean in and see if they can participate? So historically, one of the challenges we've had as a rural school system is that our best and our brightest, they'll do exceptionally well in school. They may even go to our local universities. But when they leave, I have a good idea in my head that they're not coming back to Richland Parish because we can't offer jobs that attract them. So they leave and they go to other states and they go to other cities. And now we're able to write our own narrative that if you want to leave and go, you can, but you don't have to. We have opportunity here for you here in Richland Parish, you have the ability to stay here to raise your family.
And I think it's changing the narrative in our parish. Well, Dina, I know you've got another video for us to watch also on how do we get more workers to come and participate in this growing economy. While we watch that, why don't we thank Susan and Sheldon for joining us. Thank you both for being here. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much appreciate you very much appreciate you coming out thank you so much I've always wanted to do something big. I know that this is the program that I need to be in in order to discover that. In order for a lot of technology to advance, we need the infrastructure.
Meta is blessing these guys with the opportunity to be a part of that, to help lay foundation for the future. You can come into the program with no prior experience. After you finish your four weeks here, be able to go into the workforce. I'm grateful for this opportunity. be. I'm excited to actually get to do the work. To have a group of students who are taking the opportunity serious and are doing it with passion, that means everything. Once they're able to finish our course, there's so many different paths that they can take. The more that we learn and establish this workforce, the more we can impact future generations. I feel like it will change the world. I'm ready to work. You were telling me a story about like a posting for fiber optic technician. Can
“40,000 Americans applied. We've graduated 250 people. And we have a 90% retention rate.”
electrician jobs. I'm kidding, obviously. But absolutely fantastic work on the data centers, fully support it great job on the metaglasses amazing and this effort where are your metaglasses jason i gave you such they're right here on the bag right in my backpack uh they're there no they're actually uh super impressive and this effort is this effort is truly impressive but you said you wanted me to do a fastball or two uh and you you didn't want it to be she didn't say that she literally asked me for at least one fastball jcal fastball uh you do okay so we'll just keep it all softballs. Please, please come back. Go ahead, Jason. No, no, no. We can just go. We'll go softballs. The boys prefer softballs. Well, I mean, we have Meta here and you just paid
the largest settlement in second only to the tobacco industry and just ahead of BP Oil. Two of the biggest disasters this country ever faced. And this one is particularly tough. And And they wonder why they call him fake news. The numbers are wrong. I'm happy to talk about the metaglasses if you prefer. I'm so glad. Actually, seriously. Go read your effective altruism. I'm actually really glad you asked me about it. Well, let me finish the question. You may not be. So I'm going to lean in now, so to speak.
“We agreed that if your state signed on with us that children under 18, not 16, can only be on our platform for two hours a day.”
It is controlled. What's your view? Meaning, obviously, a parent can override it, but our app actually just does turn off. Obviously, a parent. It's funny, I was in Texas this weekend at the Texas this Ohio State game. My alma mater. And it was really funny. I had so many people come up to me and say, you know this turning off, because it's literally happening. Turning off Instagram is hurting college recruiting, football recruiting. I'm like, what? What are you talking about? In Texas, we put all of our kids' videos on Instagram, and they get recruited. So it is interesting. I said, well, we live in America. That's up to you. You can decide as a parent if you want to do more But it does actually shut off, and a parent has to override that.
I think it's incredible. I remember just being with my kids at the dinner table, and my son was trying to show me something, and he had hit the limit, just turned off. And I was like, this is fantastic. And what did you do? You're like, leave it off? What's that? You're like, just leave it off. You don't care. The reason is, as a parent, it's whack-a-mole. Yeah. Because the content is syndicated across all these platforms. And that's why what you're saying is so right. When my son, when my kids, my five kids, go to school, they interact with YouTube as their primary outside of school mechanism because so much of the school content and educational content is there so even if you shut off shorts and Instagram they pop up over here so it is this whack-a-mole problem for parents and you it's a full-time job to manage it and so if there is effectively like a labeling and like you know a decision on governance by these companies it's deeply helpful for all of us that have jobs or trying to live a life and raise kids normally so they don't become zombies. Zach you're very active managing your kids mobile phone usage. Yeah how many do you have? Look I think the new defaults probably are better I mean just thinking about my kids usage yeah it'd be nice if it turned off after you know
an hour or two. So, yeah, look, I think that's an improvement. I do have to sort of defend Meta because I do think that there was a little bit of a ridiculous pile-on where, you know, the company's getting sued by adults who are blaming the use of this completely voluntary product. No one's forcing you to use any of these social networking products. And then something goes wrong in their life that has many causes, and then they're suing Meta and winning big judgments, and then the state AGs get in on the act, and all the trial lawyers... And the trial lawyers got half the money, I thought. Yeah.
So let's just acknowledge that there is a little bit of a shakedown going on here as well. I mean, let's face it, that is kind of how the American court system works.
“and you add the reward function being time, all these apps will proliferate.”
kudos for. I want to talk about this addiction thing as it relates to the product that we all
“a group of blind veterans from the organization that supports them came and actually worked with the meta engineers and designed specific features.”
Is that the form factor that you think kind of gets AI? I, in a prevalent way for most people in the world, is the glasses form factor, or is there something else you think? I'm sure there will be many products. I mean, I think what I have learned from our team is that, you know, glasses are a thing. People wear glasses, and it's something that, you know, many, many people, they're affordable, and people, obviously, we really worked hard. Mark was very focused, not just on the design, but the weight of it, so it takes a lot to put the technology in here and to still keep it stylish. I think you're a minority owner of Ray-Ban, no? Or of Luxotic, of the broad company?
Yes, they're our partner. Yeah, we have an exclusive with them. I think that's why people should reconsider these, you know, as a product category, because I've had them since Google Glass. And the battery never worked. They were too bulky. You look like a dork in them. And now the battery works. And because you can control them, you know, not with Siri, which is still kind of broken, but this actually works. And when you're with your kids and you want to take videos when you're skiing or you want to take pictures, it actually, putting a phone between you is much more intrusive. So I think this actually brings you into the real world.
And the translation feature is also very slick. So when you go to Japan or you go somewhere and they're talking to you in another language, it can actually translate. Or if you see a sign, boom, just instant translation without taking your phone out. It's time for people to reconsider these specifically for those reasons. You've used them a long time though, so you really know.
“the more you distribute this technology, the more people that have super intelligence and are able to reach their potential”
to come and join us today. We covered a lot. It was awesome. Thank you for being here.
Thank you guys so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. That was great.
