Tech Giants’ Sacramento Lobbying Spiked by $1 Million in Last-Minute Q3 Lobbying Push to Kill Critical A.I. Guardrails
New state reports filed on Friday found Big Tech lobbying surged by 36% in the third quarter of the year compared to the first half of 2025 – totaling at least $3.46 million in lobbying from July through the end of September, right as key tech accountability bills faced final votes in the California legislature and Governor Newsom’s signature or veto.
“With key bills on kids’ safety, A.I. pricing, and algorithmic fairness on the line, Big Tech employed its classic playbook at the end of California’s legislative session: pouring millions into lobbying, PR, and other scare tactics to stop accountability at all costs. And even though Big Tech pressure on California legislators is more intense than ever, this was just the beginning – the influence campaigning is only going to get worse as Big Tech giants form California Super PACs that aim to bully legislators out of regulating A.I., pledging to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat lawmakers who stand up to them. Californians and their elected representatives must be hyper vigilant to these tactics and call out Big Tech’s no-holds-barred campaign to overrule the preferences of Californians, who say in poll after poll they want stronger A.I. guardrails and accountability for Big Tech.”
– Sacha Haworth, Executive Director, The Tech Oversight Project
Some of the notable Big Tech lobbying numbers for third quarter of 2025:
- Google: $1.7 million (up significantly from $480k in Q2, in $216k in Q1)
- Technet: $619k (up significantly from $89k in Q2, $108k in Q1; also spiked from $139k in Q3 of last year)
- Amazon: $509k
- Meta: $363k (Meta has spent more than $1 million in the first three quarters – putting the company on track to set its single-year record for lobbying in California, according to Bloomberg.)
- Chamber of Progress: $89k
- Tiktok: $60k
- NetChoice: $30k
- Computer & Communications Industry Association: $30k
Additionally, CalChamber, which lobbies on behalf of the tech industry in addition to other business interests and actively opposed a kids’ chatbot safety bill and legislation to rein in predatory AI pricing, also saw a huge increase in lobbying expenditures. It spent $8 million in Q3 on lobbying, compared to $2.3 million in Q2 and $1.2 million in Q1, intensifying this year’s last-minute Big Tech lobbying surge.
The recently formed American Innovative Network, a coalition of AI startups led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and tech incubator Y Combinator, spent more than $75,000 in Q2 and Q3, including on a digital ad campaign to oppose the LEAD for Kids Act.