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Senate Bill No. 53
CHAPTER 138
An act to add Chapter 25.1 (commencing with Section 22757.10) to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, to add Section 11546.8 to the Government Code, and to add Chapter 5.1 (commencing with Section 1107) to Part 3 of Division 2 of the Labor Code, relating to artificial intelligence.
[Approved by Governor September 29, 2025. Filed with Secretary of State September 29, 2025.]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
SB 53, Wiener. Artificial intelligence models: large developers.
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(2) Existing law establishes the Department of Technology within the Government Operations Agency. Existing law requires the department to conduct, in coordination with other interagency bodies as it deems appropriate, a comprehensive inventory of all high-risk automated decision systems that have been proposed for use, development, or procurement by, or are being used, developed, or procured by, any state agency.
This bill would establish within the Government Operations Agency a consortium required to develop a framework for the creation of a public cloud computing cluster to be known as “CalCompute” that advances the development and deployment of artificial intelligence that is safe, ethical, equitable, and sustainable by, among other things, fostering research and innovation that benefits the public, as prescribed. The bill would require the Government Operations Agency to, on or before January 1, 2027, submit a report from the consortium to the Legislature with that framework and would dissolve the consortium upon submission of that report. The bill would make those provisions operative only upon an appropriation in a budget act, or other measure, for its purposes.
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THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California is leading the world in artificial intelligence innovation and research through companies large and small and through the state’s remarkable public and private universities.
(b) Artificial intelligence, including new advances in foundation models, has the potential to catalyze innovation and the rapid development of a wide range of benefits for Californians and the California economy, including advances in medicine, wildfire forecasting and prevention, and climate science, and to push the bounds of human creativity and capacity.
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SEC. 3. Section 11546.8 is added to the Government Code, to read:
§ 11546.8 (a) There is hereby established within the Government Operations Agency a consortium that shall develop, pursuant to this section, a framework for the creation of a public cloud computing cluster to be known as “CalCompute.”
(b) The consortium shall develop a framework for the creation of CalCompute that advances the development and deployment of artificial intelligence that is safe, ethical, equitable, and sustainable by doing, at a minimum, both of the following:
(1) Fostering research and innovation that benefits the public.
(2) Enabling equitable innovation by expanding access to computational resources.
(c) The consortium shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that CalCompute is established within the University of California to the extent possible.
(d) CalCompute shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) A fully owned and hosted cloud platform.
(2) Necessary human expertise to operate and maintain the platform.
(3) Necessary human expertise to support, train, and facilitate the use of CalCompute.
(e) The consortium shall operate in accordance with all relevant labor and workforce laws and standards.
(f) (1) On or before January 1, 2027, the Government Operations Agency shall submit, pursuant to Section 9795, a report from the consortium to the Legislature with the framework developed pursuant to subdivision (b) for the creation and operation of CalCompute.
(2) The report required by this subdivision shall include all of the following elements:
(A) A landscape analysis of California’s current public, private, and nonprofit cloud computing platform infrastructure.
(B) An analysis of the cost to the state to build and maintain CalCompute and recommendations for potential funding sources.
(C) Recommendations for the governance structure and ongoing operation of CalCompute.
(D) Recommendations for the parameters for use of CalCompute, including, but not limited to, a process for determining which users and projects will be supported by CalCompute.
(E) An analysis of the state’s technology workforce and recommendations for equitable pathways to strengthen the workforce, including the role of CalCompute.
(F) A detailed description of any proposed partnerships, contracts, or licensing agreements with nongovernmental entities, including, but not limited to, technology-based companies, that demonstrates compliance with the requirements of subdivisions (c) and (d).
(G) Recommendations regarding how the creation and ongoing management of CalCompute can prioritize the use of the current public sector workforce.
(g) The consortium shall, consistent with state constitutional law, consist of 14 members as follows:
(1) Four representatives of the University of California and other public and private academic research institutions and national laboratories appointed by the Secretary of Government Operations.
(2) Three representatives of impacted workforce labor organizations appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.
(3) Three representatives of stakeholder groups with relevant expertise and experience, including, but not limited to, ethicists, consumer rights advocates, and other public interest advocates appointed by the Senate Rules Committee.
(4) Four experts in technology and artificial intelligence to provide technical assistance appointed by the Secretary of Government Operations.
(h) The members of the consortium shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for all necessary expenses actually incurred in the performance of their duties.
(i) The consortium shall be dissolved upon submission of the report required by paragraph (1) of subdivision (f) to the Legislature.
(j) If CalCompute is established within the University of California, the University of California may receive private donations for the purposes of implementing CalCompute.
(k) This section shall become operative only upon an appropriation in a budget act, or other measure, for the purposes of this section.
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