B - Cost & Funding

Statutory text

Government Code section 11546.8, subdivision (f)(2)(B), requires the Report to include:

(B) An analysis of the cost to the state to build and maintain CalCompute and recommendations for potential funding sources.

Source: SB-53 Gov Code 11546.8.

Reading list

This list groups the library’s sources for this element by tier. It does not say what the Report will recommend.

Primary (28)

• 2026-10-14 SB-53 Assembly Floor analysis: The analysis gives a cost figure for the consortium’s own work.
• California Report on Frontier AI Policy 2025-06-17: The working group report does not mention CalCompute in the excerpt.
• CDT IT Classification Mapping: State IT jobs in six domains map to IT Technician to Manager II; Machine Learning Engineer and Cloud Architect are state titles.
• ESP Action CalCompute public cloud release 2024-02-08 (web): The co-sponsor calls CalCompute a “public cloud”. Teri Olle: people with ideas “do not have access to the tools they need”.
• ESP Governor signs SB-53 release 2025-09-29 (web): The co-sponsor says compute is “dominated by just three companies: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft” and CalCompute is “a public option”.
• ESP launches Economic Security California 2024-01-30 (web): Economic Security California (ESCA) is the California state affiliate of the Economic Security Project (ESP).
• Executive Order N-6-26: Directive 9 set a deadline of “No later than October 15, 2026” for the Government Operations Agency (GovOps).
• Governor California 4th largest economy 2025-04-23 (web): California becomes the fourth-largest economy, $4.1 trillion against Japan’s $4.02 trillion (IMF and BEA). No CalCompute.
• Governor economy tops 4.5 trillion 2026-10-05 (web): California output tops $4.5 trillion in 2025 (BEA) and “remains” the fourth-largest economy. No CalCompute.
• GovOps more efficient California
• Jobs First 2025 results release: $1.6 billion in 2025; 142,000 trained, 61,000 jobs; ETP, apprenticeship and HRTP channels
• Massachusetts AI Hub release: $31M state grant to MGHPCC for AI Compute Resources; about $120M over five years
• NAIRR Pilot allocation management policy: The NAIRR Pilot takes back compute that a project does not use.
• NAIRR Pilot proposal instructions: A NAIRR Pilot request is a three-page PDF, a short CV for the lead, and an online form.
• NSF 26-508 TechAccess solicitation (web)
• NSF 26-513 solicitation: NSF AI Infrastructure Hubs: one award per state, first deadline Nov. 4, 2026; partners fund five years of compute, NSF funds staff and training
• Poppy service page: CDT charges state departments for Poppy.
• SB 1047 CalCompute section 2024-08-29: SB 1047’s CalCompute section: the same elements as SB-53, report due Jan. 1, 2026; vetoed
• SB-53 Assembly Floor analysis 2025-09-08: This is the only legislative source with a cost figure for the consortium.
• SB-53 Assembly Privacy analysis 2025-07-08: The committee’s summary of the bill (items 17 to 28) already matches the enacted § 11546.8 almost item for item.
• SB-53 Gov Code 11546.8: The statute: Gov. Code § 11546.8, subdivisions (a) to (k), word for word. The base of every definition.
• SB-53 Senate GO analysis 2025-03-25: Excerpt of the CalCompute passages of the Senate Governmental Organization analysis. The full copy is the (web) page.
• SB-53 Senate GO analysis 2025-03-25 (web): The first committee analysis of SB 53. It has the enacted mission, UC placement and seven elements, with the March appointment scheme. It says “This bill does not establish CalCompute” and records no opposition.
• UC Regents B4 Update on AI 2026-09-16: UC is scoping its own “Sovereign AI Cloud”, UC-owned and UC-governed. It does not name CalCompute.
• Wiener SB 1047 introduction release 2024-02-07 (web): SB 1047’s release names CalCompute users as “startups, researchers, and community groups” and asks cloud firms for transparent pricing.
• Wiener SB 294 announcement 2023-09-13
• Wiener SB-53 expansion release 2025-07-09: The author’s office describes CalCompute as more settled than the statute does.
• Wiener SB-53 introduction release 2025-02-28 (web): SB 53 “takes the first step toward establishing CalCompute”, with “low-cost compute”. It compares New York’s $90 million AI consortium.

Peer-reviewed (1)

• PEARC 2025 Empire AI model for provisioning AI and HPC: Empire AI: $250M state capital, $150M from members, nonprofit governance, member-ranked proposals

Institutional (15)

• ACCESS Project types: ACCESS has four project types: Explore, Discover, Accelerate and Maximize.
• Cal-ICOR About: Partners (UC Berkeley lead, Learning Lab, 2i2c) and five named staff.
• Cal-ICOR homepage: 1,907 students this term and 4,369 all time (UC 275, CSU 1,497, CCC 134); Learning Lab supports it; “Free”. Lists the pages taken.
• Cal-ICOR hub usage: 13 institutions on 20 hubs; users by term 9 to 1,907; summer use drops about 90 percent.
• CloudBank at Berkeley: 2020 UC Berkeley data science college (CDSS) news: NSF CloudBank (SDSC, UC Berkeley) brokers public cloud for research and teaching
• Columbia Empire AI page: 700,000 service units per institution; $0.50 per unit, half paid by Columbia; free low-priority overflow
• CSIS If Compute Is the New Oil: Commentary on compute as a strategic resource in the Gulf; links a UC record on data center energy use
• Empire AI access (web): Empire AI is a New York State consortium that shares an AI computer among member institutions.
• Epoch AI data centers: 96 of the largest AI data centers, with power, compute and cost estimates; no California site among them
• Epoch AI GPU clusters: Over 500 GPU clusters with performance, power, cost and owner; CC-BY; a cross-check and model for the survey’s fields
• LBNL 2024 US Data Center Energy Usage Report: US data centers: 176 TWh in 2023 (4.4% of electricity), 325-580 TWh in 2028; California second to Virginia in demand
• NAIRR Pilot resource allocations (web)
• Public AI Network 2024 white paper: Public access, accountability and permanent public goods; names CalCompute as a local public compute effort
• UC Davis HPC rates
• UN OSET and UNDP 2024 DPI Safeguards: This is a United Nations framework for safe and inclusive digital public infrastructure (DPI).

Trade (9)

• Anthropic researcher access programs (web): Anthropic has two credit programs.
• AWS Cloud Credit for Research (web): AWS gives promotional credit to faculty, research staff and graduate students.
• Google Cloud research credits (web): Google gives Google Cloud Platform (GCP) credit to faculty, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in listed countries.
• Google TPU Research Cloud (web): The TPU Research Cloud (TRC) gives accepted researchers Cloud Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) “at no charge”.
• Granted AI on NSF 26-508: This is a vendor blog post that sells a grant-writing product.
• Microsoft AFMR (web): Microsoft’s Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) program has ended.
• NVIDIA Academic Grant Program (web): The NVIDIA Academic Grant Program is “currently not accepting new applications”.
• OpenAI Researcher Access Program (web): OpenAI gives up to $1,000 of API (application programming interface) credit for research on responsible deployment, risk and the societal impact of AI.
• Oracle Cloud Free Tier: US$300 credit for 30 days and Always Free services; no GPU in the free tier

Know a source this list is missing? Use Suggest reading on the site, or write to team@californiacompute.org with the subject “Suggested reading”.