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Mark Zuckerberg is exploring buying a property in Washington, DC, according to two people familiar with the matter, as Meta’s billionaire founder steps up his efforts to shape US President Donald Trump’s approach to the technology sector.
A potential property had been identified, one of the people said. The 40-year-old already owns multiple properties in California, where Meta has its headquarters, as well as a compound in Hawaii.
The move signals Zuckerberg’s ambition to work closely with the Trump administration, the people said, as he seeks a role in influencing regulation in areas, such as artificial intelligence, that are of increasing importance to Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.
Zuckerberg has said he is aiming to make Meta, which has a market capitalisation of $1.7tn, the “leader” in AI, battling rivals such as OpenAI, Google and Microsoft.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.
Acquiring a property in Washington would be the latest attempt by Zuckerberg to ingratiate himself with Trump, who threatened to jail the tech billionaire if he interfered in last year’s election and dubbed his company an “enemy of the people” for allegedly censoring rightwing voices.
This month, the company launched an unexpected overhaul of its content moderation, ending its third-party fact-checking programme in a move welcomed by Trump and his allies. It also accused the Biden administration of previously pressing the company to censor content related to the coronavirus pandemic, for example.
Zuckerberg also replaced Meta’s global policy chief Nick Clegg with prominent Republican ally Joel Kaplan, and appointed Dana White, a martial arts tycoon and friend of Trump, to Meta’s board.
The billionaire attended Trump’s inauguration, sitting behind the president alongside tech executives including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Trump has returned to the White House at a critical juncture for Silicon Valley, as the biggest tech companies compete to be a powerhouse in AI. Zuckerberg said he expected to allocate between $60bn and $65bn in capital spending to bolster the company’s AI efforts, including expanding its teams “significantly”.
However, Trump’s attention has so far been focused on his rivals. Last week the president announced that OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle were forming a $500bn US AI infrastructure joint venture called “Stargate”, lauding the initiative as “a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential under a new president”.
Some experts have noted a recent surge in the sale of luxury real estate in Washington in what has been dubbed a “Trump bump”, as business executives bet that property in the capital will help bolster their influence with the administration.
Venture capitalist and entrepreneur David Sacks, appointed as Trump’s new crypto and AI tsar after supporting his campaign, has bought a $10mn residence in the US capital, according to documentation seen by the Financial Times and a person familiar with the matter. Axios first reported the move on Monday.
Elon Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency and has been working out of SpaceX’s Washington office, has reportedly also been seeking to invest in a DC property, prompting a backlash from locals in the city’s Adams Morgan neighbourhood.
The precise contours of Musk’s role in the administration have yet to be outlined, but Trump last week denied that Musk would be getting an office in the White House itself.
Additional reporting by Joe Miller in Washington DC