Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Big Tech Joins Big Oil As Big CA Politics Spenders

By Lynn La, CALMATTERS

The Dreamforce annual tech conference hosted by Salesforce in San Francisco on Sept. 18, 2024. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters

Big Tech spent $39 million to influence state politics last year, making 2025 a blockbuster year of spending for Meta, Google and other technology companies that want to push their agenda to California officials.

As CalMatters’ Jeremia Kimelman explains, the upcoming election, disputes over artificial intelligence regulation and the growth of the cryptocurrency industry have prompted Big Tech to spend big bucks on political campaigns, donate to nonprofit organizations and hire lobbyists.

The $39 million makes the tech industry the top political spender in California, alongside the oil and gas industry, giving tech companies an outsized influence in Sacramento, critics say.

• Catherine Bracy, founder of the nonprofit TechEquity, which is in favor of AI regulation: “There’s a question of why (tech companies) have to spend so much money. And that’s because they’re on the wrong side of history, and people don’t like them very much.”

Since the current two-year legislative session began in December 2024, the state Legislature has considered more than 50 bills that would regulate AI. Meta spent nearly $30 million in 2025 to influence California politics, including $20 million toward a political committee it created that supports candidates who are in favor of AI deregulation. On lobbying state officials alone, the company spent at least $4.6 million — far more than any other year since 2010, when it began advocating at the state Capitol.

Crypto companies — which are fairly new tech players buying influence across the state — have also ramped up their spending. Coinbase spent $200,000 on state lobbying last year, including $60,000 to the California Democratic Party.

The industry’s political spending has proven consequential before: Two years ago, it poured $10 million into a campaign blitz that helped knock out then-Rep. Katie Porter, a critic of the crypto industry, from the California Senate race.

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