Role: Governor of California (2019–present) Party: Democratic
Gavin Newsom is the 40th governor of California. Because California hosts the majority of US frontier AI developers, his decisions on state AI bills — which to sign, which to veto, and under what framing — shape the bound of US state-level AI regulation in the absence of a federal frontier-model statute.
Background
Newsom has served as California's governor since January 2019. He previously served as Lieutenant Governor (2011–2019) and as Mayor of San Francisco (2004–2011).
Frontier-AI legislation
In September 2024, Newsom vetoed SB 1047 (Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act), the first serious US attempt to impose safety requirements on frontier AI developers. His veto message argued the bill was insufficiently targeted, applying uniform requirements regardless of whether a model was deployed in high-risk settings, and that regulation should be based on "empirical evidence and science" rather than model-size thresholds. The veto was framed as pro-innovation but not anti-regulation; Newsom simultaneously commissioned a working-group report to inform a follow-on bill (SB 1047 source summary).
In September 2025, Newsom signed SB 53 (Transparency in Frontier AI Act), a narrower successor to SB 1047 focused on transparency, whistleblower protections, and incident reporting rather than ex-ante safety requirements. According to FPF and Brookings analysis, SB 53 is the most significant US state-level frontier-model law currently in force, and it reflects the empirical, targeted approach Newsom's veto message had called for.
In October 2025, Newsom signed SB 243 (Companion Chatbot Safeguards), which imposes disclosure, minor-protection, and crisis-referral requirements on companion AI chatbots. The law placed California ahead of federal regulators on mental-health-related AI harm.
SB 1047 and SB 53 were authored by state senator Scott Wiener; SB 243 was authored by Sen. Padilla (California SB 243 — Companion Chatbots).
On September 9, 2026, Newsom signed SB 813 (McNerney) and AB 1405 (Bauer-Kahan), which his office described as the first laws in the United States establishing independent third-party audits of AI systems. SB 813 directs the Government Operations Agency to designate independent verification organizations to assess AI systems (California SB 813 — enrolled text (Chapter 179, 2026)), and AB 1405 creates a registry of AI auditors at the same agency (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). On signing he said recent incidents reinforced that "the federal government must step forward with robust, national regulations that match the urgency of this moment" (Source: gov.ca.gov). A week later his office described SB 813 as making California "the first state in the nation to require assessments by independent verification organizations" (Source: gov.ca.gov); the enacted chapter states that it does not require any developer or deployer to engage one (California SB 813 — enrolled text (Chapter 179, 2026)).
In an interview with POLITICO published September 17, 2026, Newsom said he plans further action on AI safety before leaving office, and that it could take the form of a special legislative session, executive action, or steps by state agencies under existing authority: "We're looking to see what we can do in the next few weeks — days, weeks, and months." He cited "the tendency of the Trump administration to do absolutely nothing" as one reason, referred to the July 2026 Hugging Face incident ("After that Hugging Face incident weeks ago, we were on this"), and said he had been in discussion with state legislative leaders, tech safety advocates and representatives of AI labs. He described SB 53 as "the floor, not the ceiling" and the two September 2026 bills as "first steps to the kind of independent third-party reviews and safety standards that people are advocating for" (Source: politico.com).
The executive action followed the next day. Executive Order N-9-26, signed September 18, 2026, advances the Government Operations Agency's deadlines under SB 813 (to May 1, 2027) and AB 1405 (to December 1, 2027), and directs the agency, with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services and national experts, to recommend by November 16, 2026 whether to require onsite embedded verification at large frontier developers, independent verification of SB 53 filings, a frontier-model "kill switch" whose efficacy is verified on an ongoing basis, and an expanded definition of critical safety incidents covering loss of control California Executive Order N-9-26 — signed text. Announcing it, Newsom said "the federal government's abject failure to create any form of meaningful AI oversight or accountability should alarm every American, especially when AI CEOs themselves are begging for regulation," and called on Congress and President Trump to adopt the state framework "or use its nation-leading regulation as a floor, not a ceiling" (Source: gov.ca.gov). On September 23 he named the four experts advising on those recommendations: Jason Goldman, Gillian Hadfield, Alondra Nelson and Rob Reich (Source: gov.ca.gov). The same day Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 22 on data centers and AI (Source: theverge.com).
On September 21, 2026 Newsom signed seven bills regulating the data-center industry, requiring operators to disclose electricity use, water consumption, land use and workforce needs, to comply with the state's energy procurement requirements, and aiming to keep the cost of new generation and grid upgrades from being shifted onto other ratepayers. "With these laws, we are ensuring that Californians remain in the driver's seat — and that those profiting from data centers aren't doing so at our expense," he said. The Data Center Coalition said the measures were "likely to further limit data center development in California" (Source: reuters.com). Several other AI bills remained on his desk as of September 22 (Source: insideaipolicy.com). The seven are AB 1577 (Bauer-Kahan), AB 2383 (Zbur), AB 2469 and AB 2619 (Papan), SB 886 and SB 887 (Padilla) and SB 1168 (McNerney), chaptered as Chapters 434–440 of the Statutes of 2026; they cover energy reporting to the California Energy Commission, data-center electricity tariffs, water and workforce conditions on local permits, water-use reporting at business licensing, and the application of CEQA to data centers (California data-center laws (2026); California data-center bill package — chaptered texts (Chapters 434–440, Statutes of 2026)). See Data Center Siting / AI Power Politics.
Synthetic media and performers
On September 16, 2026, Newsom signed SB 1050 (Ashby) at the headquarters of its sponsor, SAG-AFTRA. The law requires a clear and conspicuous disclosure when an audio or video advertisement prominently features an AI-generated synthetic performer. Newsom said that "Californians deserve to know when the person selling them something isn't a person at all" (Source: gov.ca.gov).
AI workforce policy
On May 21, 2026, Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation AI workforce-disruption executive order directing state agencies to develop, within 180 days, modernized severance standards, employment-insurance reforms, worker-ownership models, universal basic capital (UBC) concepts, an AI workforce-impact dashboard, and revisions to California's WARN Act. The order was signed the same day President Trump postponed his cybersecurity-and-frontier-AI executive order (Claude Mythos Preview § Trump AI EO), setting California's anticipatory labor-policy posture apart from the federal posture (Source: gov.ca.gov).
Positions and political context
Newsom's stated frontier-AI posture is to regulate carefully rather than preemptively. He has criticized the Trump administration's attempts to preempt state AI regulation, via America's AI Action Plan and Executive Order 14365 — Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI, as well as what he characterized as overbroad early drafts of state legislation. He is widely considered a 2028 presidential candidate, and his AI record is expected to feature in that positioning.
Relationships
- related: California Executive Order N-9-26 (independent verification and frontier AI safety) — executive order of September 18, 2026 on independent verification and a frontier-model kill switch
- related: Scott Wiener — Newsom signed Wiener's SB 53 and vetoed his SB 1047.
- related: California SB 1047 — Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier AI Models Act (enrolled + veto) — vetoed.
- related: California SB 53 — Transparency in Frontier AI Act — signed.
- related: California SB 243 — Companion Chatbots — signed.
- related: California SB 813 (AI independent verification organizations), California AB 1405 (AI auditor registry) — signed September 9, 2026.
- related: California SB 1050 (synthetic performers in advertising) — signed September 16, 2026.
- related: California data-center laws (2026) — seven data-center bills signed September 21, 2026.
- contradicts: America's AI Action Plan — Newsom has pushed back on federal preemption of state AI regulation.
- contradicts: Executive Order 14365 — Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI — same federalism tension.
- instance-of: Techno-Federalism: How Regulatory Fragmentation Shapes the U.S.-China AI Race — Newsom shapes the state-level half of the US AI regulatory architecture.