WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, The Tech Oversight Project issued the following report calling out Donald Trump’s big handouts to Big Tech platforms in his budget reconciliation bill. A full version of the report can be found here, and a list of key findings can be found below.
“Guess those inaugural donations are starting to pay off, because Trump and Republicans’ ‘Big Ugly Bill’ not only funded tax breaks for Meta, Amazon, Google, and Apple, but also for the billionaires who run them. To pay for these Big Tech giveaways, Republicans are throwing everyday Americans off their healthcare and ending lifesaving scientific research and public broadcasting,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project. “Rest assured, when Democrats are back in power, law-breaking Big Tech companies will pay their fair share.”
Key Findings:
- The tax bill extended an R&D credit that primarily benefited Big Tech. The bill restored the ability for businesses to immediately deduct 100% of their domestic R&D expenses. Big Tech trade groups and companies, including the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, the Business Software Alliance, and the Information Technology Industry Council, lobbied for Congress to bring back full R&D expensing. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Tesla were projected to win $75 billion in tax breaks with the R&D deduction restored. Alphabet would be the single biggest beneficiary of the deduction, reaping $9.4 billion.
- Big Tech companies benefited from the tax bill’s permanent extension of 100% bonus depreciation. Large, already profitable firms were the main beneficiaries of the bonus depreciation tax credit.
- Big Tech companies benefited from the tax bill’s adjustments to how the business interest deduction was calculated. The bill restored and made permanent more generous limits on business interest deductions.
- Big Tech companies benefited from the tax bill’s protection of the 21% corporate tax rate. Trade groups that included Big Tech companies like the National Retail Federation and the Information Technology Industry Council had pushed for Congress to keep the corporate tax rate low.
- The tax bill expanded the foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) and global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) deductions, which largely benefited Big Tech companies. The FDII and GILTI effective tax rates were set to rise in 2026, but the new bill extended the lower rates permanently.
- The FDII deduction was a huge tax break for corporations that earn income from their intellectual property by selling goods abroad, like Big Tech. FDII was a major reason why Big Tech firms paid so much less than the statutory corporate tax rate. Alphabet has been the single largest beneficiary of the FDII deduction since 2018, reporting $11 billion in tax breaks, while Amazon also reported $1 billion in tax breaks. Big Tech trade groups have pushed for the protection of the FDII deduction.
- Big Tech trade groups also pushed for Congress not to raise the GILTI tax rate, which aims at income earned from “intangible assets” like IP.
- The tax bill reduced the Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT), a key priority for Big Tech. BEAT was designed to curb artificial profit shifting arrangements. Big Tech lobbying groups like the Information Technology Innovation Council pushed for BEAT to be reduced, calling it a punishment for R&D costs.
- Big Tech companies stood to gain from the massive amounts of new funding for ICE in the tax bill. The bill more than tripled the budget for Customs and Border Protection to more than $60 billion, which will likely result in bigger contracts to surveillance tech companies. Amazon has received major government contracts from ICE for its cloud services platform. Palantir paid Amazon $600,000 a month for the use of its servers for the case management system used by ICE.
Recent Polling:
TOP/PPP, National Poll, June 2025
- The American people overwhelmingly disapprove of Big Tech CEOs and do not trust them to craft policy that affects their lives.
- 74% of Americans disapprove of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with a net favorability of -59 points
- 55% of Americans disapprove of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, with a net favorability of -38
- 44% of Americans disapprove of Apple CEO Tim Cook, with a net favorability of -14 points
- 67% of Americans disapprove of Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos, with a net favorability of -45
- 50% of Americans disapprove of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, with a net favorability of -36 points
- In response to Big Tech CEOs taking actions to appear more MAGA and in support of President Trump’s agenda, such as weakening fact-checking and hate speech protections, donating to the inaugural fund, and appearing on far-right podcasts, a majority of Trump voters see right through them and believe it is an act.
- 54% of Trump voters and 70% of voters overall believe Big Tech is just trying to appeal to Trump.
- An overwhelming majority of Americans support taxing Big Tech to offset costs and externalities associated with its industry, such as increased energy consumption, to ensure Big Tech pays its fair share.
- 72% overall support a Big Tech Tax – with 86% of Democrats, 60% of Republicans, and 70% of independents supporting.
- Notably, only 21% of Republicans oppose the measure.
- A majority of Americans trust the federal government or state governments to make policy decisions about artificial intelligence policy over Big Tech CEOs.
- 52% trust the federal government or state to make policy decisions.
- Only 7% of respondents trust Big Tech CEOs to make policy decisions that affect their lives.
- Democrats and Independents overwhelmingly distrust Big Tech CEOs by similarly overwhelming margins.
- Democrats:
- 75% disapprove of Mark Zuckerberg, with a net favorability of -62 points
- 43% disapprove of Sundar Pichai
- 43% disapprove of Tim Cook, with a net favorability of -7 points
- 75% disapprove of Jeff Bezos, with a net favorability of -59 points
- 54% disapprove of Sam Altman, with a net favorability of 39 points
- Independents:
- 82% disapprove of Mark Zuckerberg, with a net favorability of -73 points
- 55% disapprove of Sundar Pichai, with a net favorability of -40 points
- 44% disapprove of Tim Cook, with a net favorability of -9 points
- 71% disapprove of Jeff Bezos, with a net favorability of -53 points
- 61% disapprove of Sam Altman, with a net favorability of -51 points
- Democrats:
- While Republican voters’ disapproval for Big Tech CEOs was less intense than that of Democrats and Independents, every CEO faced double-digit disapproval among Republicans.
- 63% disapprove of Mark Zuckerberg, with a net favorability of -41 points
- 52% disapprove of Sundar Pichai, with a net favorability of -34 points
- 44% disapprove of Tim Cook, with a net favorability of -22 points
- 53% disapprove of Jeff Bezos, with a net favorability of -22 points
- 34% disapprove of Sam Altman, with a net favorability of -16 points