Democrats swept the U.S. midterms last week, handing Microsoft a wave of new investigations, data center restrictions, and potential revenue losses.
As soon as the ballots were counted, prominent Democratic leaders signaled that launching probes and open hearings focused on major technology and artificial intelligence firms would rank among their top priorities. Microsoft will be among the companies investigated.
Two days after election day, Senator Richard Blumenthal demanded that the Federal Communications Commission and tech companies including Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Google, Nvidia, and Amazon turn over documents related to donations for a new White House ballroom. The Washington Post reported that Microsoft donated $10 million to the project.
“They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing,” Senator Ed Markey posted on X on election night.
They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing. https://t.co/ZtoXHeeAQK
One of the midterm election’s biggest issues was the data centers Microsoft and other artificial intelligence giants have been building. Critics say the centers increase electricity costs while residents subsidize them.
“Data centers raised wholesale [electricity] prices by 6.9 percent nationally by 2025,” the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported.
Forty out of 41 local ballot initiatives against the centers won. Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the New York Times to “Expect a tsunami of new rules and oversight.”
Under Donald Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s budget skyrocketed to a baseline budget of $10 billion, pumped up by a $75 billion supplement in 2025. Microsoft has been one of the recipients of this spending spree.
A joint reporting project conducted by The Guardian alongside +972 Magazine and Local Call revealed that Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform houses massive quantities of ICE data, which the agency examines using Microsoft’s AI tools.
The Democratic Congress will certainly slash the agency’s budget. Microsoft may lose a major revenue stream as a result.
