March 06, 2025

Warren Slams Big Tech CEOs for Cozying Up to Trump Admin, Attempting to Score Billions in Tax Handouts at Working Families’ Expense

Senator Warren demands answers from Tesla, Amazon, Meta, Apple, Alphabet CEOs about lobbying efforts, impacts of possible tax giveaways

“It’s no secret why [corporations like yours are] throwing millions of dollars into lobbying President Trump and Republicans in Congress at this very moment: the result of your lobbying efforts could net you billions of dollars.” 

Text of Letters (PDF) 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla; Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, regarding the cumulative $75 billion in tax giveaways  — handed out at the expense of working families — that their companies could receive after cozying up to the Trump administration. 

As part of President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, among many corporate giveaways, Republicans in Congress decided to end a corporate tax break known as research and development (R&D) expensing to help pay for their tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. This tax break allowed companies to deduct the total cost of their R&D expenses immediately, instead of deducting them over time, as is the standard practice in the tax code. This change was one of the few parts of the 2017 bill that forced companies to pay higher taxes. Now, corporations want to revert back to the pre-2017 rules — and not only do corporations want to apply immediate R&D expensing to future tax years, but they are also pushing to retroactively apply these deductions to 2022, 2023, and 2024.

“[Corporations like yours] want to retroactively apply these tax deductions to investments they already made in the past, amounting to nothing more than a tax handout to massive corporations for past investment decisions,” wrote Senator Warren.

While these corporations claim that not allowing immediate expensing “significantly limits businesses’ ability” to invest in R&D, these claims are false. In fact, since R&D expensing ended in 2022, the R&D spending of each of the five companies increased significantly.

“[E]ven as your R&D investments have increased since R&D expensing ended, [each of your companies] ha[ve] lobbied to bring back this corporate tax break and find other ways to slash your tax bill even lower,” said Senator Warren. 

All five companies belong to trade organizations intensely lobbying for the retroactive application and extension of R&D expensing, including the Chamber of Commerce. Just last year, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Tesla spent over $63 million lobbying for corporate tax breaks that include retroactive and immediate R&D expensing. All five companies also poured millions into President Trump’s campaign or inauguration. 

“It’s no secret why [corporations like yours are] throwing millions of dollars into lobbying President Trump and Republicans in Congress at this very moment: the result of your lobbying efforts could net you billions of dollars,” said Senator Warren. 

Collectively, the five companies are projected to win $75 billion if Congress awards them retroactive R&D tax expensing — nearly double what the federal government spends on child nutrition programs each year. Senator Warren called it a “fantastic return on investment for the millions [they] have spent lobbying on the tax fight.” 

According to a new, independent analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), from retroactive application of R&D expensing alone: 

  • Tesla stands to gain at least $2.5 billion.

  • Amazon stands to gain at least $22 billion.

  • Meta stands to gain at least $15 billion.

  • Apple stands to gain at least $10 billion.

  • Alphabet stands to gain at least $24 billion.

“American taxpayers will shoulder the burden of tax cuts for [the companies], and they deserve answers about your efforts to secure massive tax breaks for billionaire corporations,” concluded Senator Warren. 

Senator Warren asked the companies to provide clarity on their lobbying expenses for tax legislation this year, their trade associations’ advocacy for tax cuts, their political donations to officials advocating for their tax cuts, and how retroactive tax breaks would affect their outlook for stock buybacks and executive compensation by March 19, 2025.

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