Tech Giants are Spending More Than Ever to Shape California Politics. See How Much

As California gears up for high-stakes elections this year, including an open governor’s race, major companies focused on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency invested more than $39 million to influence state politics in 2025, according to a CalMatters analysis.

The companies contributed that money to political campaigns, hired lobbyists to influence policy and donated to nonprofit organizations at the request of lawmakers. In all cases, critics say, the companies used their money to build relationships that give them outsized influence over the legislative process. The companies themselves say that they’re supporting candidates and policies who align with their corporate priorities.

Tech giants step up spending

Last July, Meta, which made $201 billion in revenue last year, transferred $20 million to a new political committee it created with the goal of supporting candidates in favor of fewer AI regulations. A month later, the company gave the California Democratic Party $150,000 and a bipartisan group of 20 incumbents in the California Legislature up to $5,900 each.

“There’s a question of why (tech companies) have to spend so much money,” said Catherine Bracy, founder of TechEquity, a nonprofit in favor of AI regulations that spent nearly $200,000 on state issue advocacy last year. “And that’s because they’re on the wrong side of history, and people don’t like them very much.”

When contacted, Meta sent a statement saying the money is “to help elect state political candidates in California — no matter their party affiliation — that support and defend the American tech industry.” The parent company of social media apps Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram spent nearly $30 million last year to influence politics in California. Part of that effort included contributions worth more than $25 million to 44 committees.

In one example, Meta and Google each contributed $5 million to ‘California Leads,’ a committee exclusively funded by the pair along with SV Angel, a venture capital firm. At the end of last year, the committee reported having more than $9.5 million in cash to spend on upcoming elections.In addition to contributing directly to election campaigns, companies also spent millions of dollars to push their position directly to lawmakers and regulators. Meta, which has been public about its policy drive against AI regulations across the country, spent at least $4.6 million lobbying state officials, far more than any other year since it started advocating in Sacramento in 2010.

Meta spent more to lobby in California in 2025 than any previous year. By a lot

That’s because California is in the infancy stages of AI regulation right now, said Sean McMorris of Common Cause California, a nonprofit focused on government transparency. “These industries are going to pump a ton of money into shaping these policies favorably to… their advantage.”

The fight about whether to regulate artificial intelligence, or how it should be done, doesn’t seem to be going away this year. Since the current legislative session began in December 2024, more than 50 bills that regulate AI are being considered according to CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database.

Federal legislative gridlock and President Donald Trump’s hostile stance toward AI regulation mean that California, where Democrats have a supermajority in the Legislature, is one place where such regulations may happen.

Meta isn’t the only company spending on possible AI legislation.

Google, whose parent company Alphabet made about $403 billion in revenue in 2025, spent more than $3.5 million on lobbying related to “technology budget funding and generative artificial intelligence” that year, although it was less than the $10 million Google spent the year before to defeat AI regulations and a bill to fund journalism.

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, started lobbying California officials for the first time in 2024 when it spent nearly $140,000. In 2025, the company spent more than $155,000. Meanwhile, Anthropic, maker of the popular large language model Claude, spent more than $200,000 to lobby state representatives last year, the first year it reported such expenses.

Meta and Google also contributed to nonprofits directly at the request of California officials in what are called behested payments. Meta made 34 payments totalling $1,245,000 at the request of California officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and a bipartisan group of legislators in both chambers.

“These transparent and public contributions to independent nonprofits and charities do not influence the governor or any state decision-making,” said Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for Newsom.

Google made a single behested payment in June 2025 worth $10,000 at the request of Sen. Scott Wiener, Democrat from San Francisco, the author of Senate Bill 53, that imposed some requirements on the makers of large AI models.

Wiener’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Crypto companies spend currency

While the well-known AI companies have been ramping up their spending in recent years, a new tech player is also buying influence across the state: the cryptocurrency industry.

Two years ago, a cryptocurrency Super PAC spent $10 million on ads against Democrat Katie Porter in the U.S. Senate primary. Last year, both Coinbase, which facilitates cryptocurrency transactions, and A16Z, one of the largest venture capital funds in the world with financial stakes in cryptocurrency companies, spent a record amount on state lobbying: $200,000 and $300,000, respectively.

Recently, two crypto-aligned billionaires made clear that they plan to spend tens of millions of dollars in state politics.

Last year was a relatively big year for Coinbase’s state political operations. The company contributed $155,000 to campaigns, including $60,000 to the California Democratic Party and $60,000 to a corporate political action committee. It also made behested payments for the first time, spending $95,000 at the request of five legislators — three Democrats and two Republicans.

Coinbase did not respond to requests for comment.

So what can one buy for $39 million?

“It sounds like a lot of money, it is a lot of money, but in statewide politics it’s not a huge amount of money,” said Jim Ross, a campaign consultant who worked on over 100 campaigns in California across 30 years.

But $39 million puts tech at the top of the money-for-influence leaderboard alongside the oil and gas industry, which is historically one of the largest spenders. Last year, fossil fuel companies spent almost $34 million lobbying the state, according to an analysis from Politico, and $5.3 million in campaign contributions, according to a CalMatters analysis.

Corporate political spending goes up because businesses want a particular outcome when the government is thinking about regulation, Ross added. “That is when they’re going to engage.”

“It’s so worth their bottom line to spend the money up front,” said Jeremy Mack, executive director of the Phoenix Project, which monitors money in Bay Area politics. It’s cheaper, he said, “to buy out the politicians, as opposed to going up against them if they get someone in there that’s opposed to their interests.”

The money also serves as a signal to elected officials and advocates that the companies are well capitalized and willing to spend to win. Even those legislators who might not accept money from a company are still aware of the large sums being invested, especially if it’s for an opponent.

“It has a chilling effect on all the other legislators who may or may not be getting money spent against them, but they see that war chest and they worry about what it might mean if it is spent against them,” said Bracy, of TechEquity. “They would worry about what it would mean for them in some future election.”

Even so, the companies may think of the money they’re spending now as an investment to perhaps avoid statewide campaigns later. Since January, wealthy Silicon Valley investors have already put millions of dollars into fighting a proposed wealth-tax initiative.

“Of course, it’s not the case that money wins every single time,” said McMorris. “But that doesn’t change the fact that it gives an advantage, extreme advantage, to the wealthy and the powerful special interests, and even when they lose, they’re still, to some degree, buying influence.”

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.