Legislative History
History & progress
How CalCompute went from a provision in a vetoed AI safety bill to codified California law — and what still needs to happen.
Current Status
Where things stand
| Milestone | Status |
|---|---|
| SB-1047 vetoed by Gov. Newsom | September 2024 |
| Governor's working group final report | June 17, 2025 |
| SB-53 introduced | 2025 legislative session |
| SB-53 signed into law | September 29, 2025 |
| CalCompute Consortium established in statute | Gov. Code § 11546.8 |
| Legislative appropriation to activate CalCompute | Pending |
| GovOps appoints Consortium members | Pending appropriation |
| Consortium framework report due | January 1, 2027 |
| CalCompute operational | TBD |
Origins
SB-1047: The first attempt
CalCompute's origins trace to SB-1047, state Sen. Scott Wiener's 2024 frontier AI safety bill. Alongside safeguard requirements for developers of powerful AI models, SB-1047 called for the creation of a consortium to develop a framework for a public cloud computing cluster — the original CalCompute proposal.
The veto
In September 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed SB-1047. His stated rationale was that the bill's regulatory framework targeted AI models based solely on their computational size without accounting for whether models were deployed in high-risk environments. The governor then convened a working group of leading AI experts — Fei-Fei Li, Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Dean Jennifer Tour Chayes — to develop an empirical, science-based framework for AI governance.
The Survival of CalCompute
SB-53: A narrower bill, a lasting law
Following the veto of SB-1047, Sen. Wiener returned in the 2025 legislative session with SB-53, a narrowed but still consequential AI bill. Where SB-1047 sought to regulate the full lifecycle of frontier AI development, SB-53 focused on transparency, whistleblower protections and catastrophic risk reporting for frontier AI developers — and critically, preserved and formalized CalCompute as a standalone initiative.
The working group convened by Gov. Newsom following his SB-1047 veto — led by Fei-Fei Li, Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Dean Jennifer Tour Chayes — published its final report on June 17, 2025, providing an empirical, science-based framework for California AI governance. SB-53 was designed to be responsive to that report's recommendations.
SB-53 was signed by Gov. Newsom on September 29, 2025 and enacted as Chapter 138 of the California statutes. Under SB-53, California Government Code Section 11546.8 establishes a 14-member Consortium within GovOps to develop the framework for the creation of CalCompute, a public cloud computing cluster. The Consortium must deliver that framework report to the Legislature by January 1, 2027.
"With a technology as transformative as AI, we have a responsibility to support that innovation while putting in place commonsense guardrails to understand and reduce risk. With this law, California is stepping up, once again, as a global leader on both technology innovation and safety."
— Sen. Scott Wiener, on the signing of SB-53
What's Next
The road to CalCompute
Three things must happen before CalCompute can be built.