Tech giants ship more than $14 billion offshore amid AI debate

Google, Meta and Amazon’s cloud arm collectively sent more than $14 billion from Australian customers offshore last year amid a growing debate about how tech giants should contribute to the country when artificial intelligence is on the rise.

Financial statements lodged with the corporate regulator show the three companies employ fewer than 5000 people in Australia and paid a combined $212 million in income tax on local profits in the 2025 calendar year.

The filings underscore the gap between the scale of the tech giants’ operations in Australia and the share of revenue that stays in the country at a time when the Albanese government is preparing to unveil laws forcing Meta, Google and TikTok to pay for news content.

According to the filings, the three companies recorded more than $8.5 billion in revenue from Australian customers last year. But the companies’ local accounts capture only a portion of the tech giants’ ultimate earnings from the country because all three Australian outposts act as resellers or intermediaries for services offered by offshore parent entities, such as ad space online.

The value of those services was at least $14 billion, though it is likely to be even higher because Meta’s Australian entity only covers ad sales to some customers, while others buy directly from Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram entities offshore.

The filings land as the Albanese government prepares to unveil draft legislation for its News Media Bargaining Incentive, which is designed to force tech giants including Meta to pay publishers for the value of journalism distributed on their platforms. They also come amid a rising debate about how Australia should handle the rise of artificial intelligence, in which all three companies have made enormous investments.

Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram owner Meta collected $1.74 billion in gross advertising revenue from a portion of its Australian advertisers, a 19 per cent jump on 2024, but sent $1.51 billion of that to related entities overseas for the right to resell the tech giant’s ad inventory.

Google Australia generated $2.1 billion in revenue, reflecting largely the commission it gets on selling ads from other Google entities offshore. But it recorded $9.35 billion in “service fees” with related parties, giving an indication of the value of ads and cloud computing capacity sold via the company in Australia.

In its financial statement, Google notes that it does not include the “gross amount billed to the end user” for cloud computing in its numbers, and only records the “commission” it receives for selling ads.

Amazon Web Services’ Australian revenue grew 20 per cent to $4.7 billion – though AWS handed $3.4 billion in cloud service fees back to other Amazon entities, nearly three-quarters of its total take. Adding in Google’s service fees of $9.35 billion and Meta’s $1.5 billion in reseller payments, that amount to more than $14 billion sent offshore.

The financial statements lodged with the corporate regulator also reveal Meta’s local subsidiary, Facebook Australia, also paid its first dividend in at least two years – $120 million to its US-based parent – and ended the year with just 128 employees.

The $1.74 billion in gross advertising revenue Meta reported from select Australian customers was up from $1.46 billion in 2024. But it reported net revenue of just $223.9 million, largely because it paid $1.51 billion to companies owned by Meta around the world.

Like Google’s Australian company, Facebook Australia is technically a reseller, so when it sells an ad to an Australian business, it then pays another company within Meta’s corporate group for the virtual space to show that ad.

The entity posted a net profit of $61.2 million. The $120 million dividend exceeded the company’s full-year profit. Meta’s Australian arm was contacted for comment.

Unlike Meta’s lean local set-up, Google employed 2277 staff in Australia at the end of 2025, posted a net profit of $392.5 million and recorded an income tax expense of $92.6 million. Its separate cloud computing arm, Google Cloud Australia, added another $264.6 million in revenue, and about $1.3 million in income tax.

“In 2025, Google Australia invested over $1 billion into our local operations and in addition advanced our $1 billion Digital Future Initiative boosting local tech innovation, infrastructure and research,” a spokesman told this masthead.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s local cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Australia, grew revenue by 20 per cent to $4.7 billion. Local operating income hit $38.9 million. It paid almost $71 million in income tax.

“Since 2012, AWS has proudly supported Australian businesses in leveraging artificial intelligence and cloud technologies to innovate, scale, and grow,” a spokesman said. “We look forward to continuing to grow and invest in Australia to support the hundreds of thousands of customers that use AWS today.”

Legislation for Australia’s News Media Bargaining Incentive is expected this week. Under the charge-and-offset scheme, platforms with more than $250 million in annual revenue would pay about 1.5 per cent to news publishers, or face a 2.25 per cent charge if they refuse.

Meta walked away from its Australian news deals in March 2024, arguing news content held little value. The incoming scheme closes the loophole in the original code that allowed platforms to sidestep obligations by removing news, with the charge applying regardless. The government has suggested the charge could be about 2.25 per cent of a company’s revenue.

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