Meta Withdraws $25 Million from Its Midterms Push

Meta’s effort to shape the midterm elections has quietly become $25 million smaller.

About a year ago, the Silicon Valley company announced an ambitious effort to elect state politicians who are friendly to the artificial intelligence industry, eventually outlining a $65 million budget for the operation. The subtext, heard loud and clear in states debating A.I. legislation, like California, Illinois and Texas: Meta’s political team was watching, and to be feared.

But this summer, with no announcement, Meta received $25 million of that cash back from political groups it had funded, according to filings made public this week. That made the company’s campaign budget about 40 percent smaller than at the outset.

In the world of campaign finance, where outside groups often carry cash from cycle to cycle, returns of tens of millions of dollars are rare outside of scandals. Meta, one of the world’s largest and wealthiest companies, also does not need $25 million to add back to its cash reserves, which recently stood at more than $90 billion.

A company spokesman said in a statement that the refunds were part of “adjustments.” He declined to answer additional questions about why they had taken place.

“More than 90 percent of the candidates we supported won their primaries, and we are now focused on supporting candidates in the general election,” the spokesman said. “We will continue to make adjustments as we evaluate the best ways to support candidates we hope will be great partners in supporting America’s technology leadership.”

The refunds came primarily from the American Technology Excellence Project, a political committee that Meta funded with $45 million in September 2025. In July and August, the group issued two returns to Meta for a total of $22 million, according to the new filings with the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday.