Meta reportedly calls its AI data centers ‘pilot models’ — its research tax credits jumped from $700M to $3.9B

Meta (NASDAQ:META) cut its taxes by $3.9 billion in 2025 with research tax credits, up from $2 billion in 2024 and $700 million in 2023, according to the company's securities filings .

A New York Times investigation published Sept. 30 reported that Meta classifies its AI data centers as "pilot models" for tax purposes — the term federal tax rules use for test versions of a product built to resolve open questions during development. The Times cited four people familiar with Meta's operations.

Meta uses that label to claim a federal research tax credit on the Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) chips inside the data centers, a practice the Times dates to late 2024. Meta did not immediately respond to Moneywise's request for comment.

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Meta's second-quarter guidance calls for $130 billion to $145 billion in spending this year on buildings and equipment, much of it to build out AI computing power . "AI is accelerating our core business today," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the same release.

No other publicly traded company gets more out of the credit, according to a Times review of securities filings.

How Meta's research tax credit strategy reportedly works

The credit dates to 1981, when lawmakers worried Japan was pulling ahead in technology, according to the Times. Most companies claim it mainly on what they pay researchers and engineers.

Supplies can count too. IRS guidance says they have to be used in "qualified research," meaning experiments to solve a technical unknown.

Meta treats its chips as supplies in that kind of research, according to the Times. The IRS has pushed back before when companies tried to claim the credit on off-the-shelf equipment, the Times reported.

Andre Shevchuck, who leads the research tax credit practice at California-based advisory firm BPM, told the Times the approach is "kind of wild and out there."

"Meta is claiming billions of dollars in tax benefits that its own accountants are telling investors are at risk of being overturned by the IRS," Lisa De Simone, who teaches accounting at the University of Texas and previously worked as a tax adviser at EY, told the Times.