Governor partners with tech companies on AI education 2025-08-07 (web)
Citation
Office of the Governor of California. “Governor Newsom partners with world’s leading tech companies to prepare Californians for AI future.” Press release, Aug. 7, 2025. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/08/07/governor-newsom-partners-with-worlds-leading-tech-companies-to-prepare-californians-for-ai-future-2/. Copy: raw/web/2026-11-09 Governor partners with tech companies on AI education 2025-08-07.md (original: .html beside it). Read 2026-11-09.
Bottom line
- California signed agreements with Google, Adobe, IBM and Microsoft to train students and workers in AI. The state pays nothing for them.
- The programs reach high schools, the California Community Colleges and the California State University (CSU). The release gives “over two million students” as the reach.
Background
The Office of the Governor issued this release in San Francisco. It describes one initiative for each of the four companies. It quotes the Governor, the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and the Government Operations Agency Secretary. It also quotes the Director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) and the two system chancellors. It also quotes one executive from each company. It ends with a list of the Governor’s earlier AI actions.
Key claims
- “Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced California has signed agreements with four of the largest technology companies in the GenAI sector” (body)
- “These agreements — reached at no cost to the state — will also allow schools and industry partners to work together to make it easier for students to develop the skills they need to move from the classroom to the workforce.” (body)
- “The solutions are voluntary and will be made available by the companies at no cost to schools and institutions.” (Preparing tomorrow’s innovators)
- “The MOU we celebrate today and the CSU-Industry AI Workforce Acceleration Board it memorializes are at the very heart of the CSU’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative” (California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia)
- “This initiative aims to integrate AI into career education programs across California’s community colleges, explore opportunities for faculty training, and broaden access to industry-recognized credentials through IBM SkillsBuild.” (IBM Initiative)
- “Google will help California residents develop tech skills through its extensive online AI training programs and continue to partner with government agencies across the state to transform citizen services” (Google Initiative)
- “California is home to 33 of the top 50 privately held AI companies around the globe.” (California’s GenAI economy)
Evidence and method
A government press release. It names the four companies, their programs and the education systems they serve. It gives no contract text, term, dollar value or count of users per program. The Microsoft section describes a bootcamp series for community college faculty that already took place.
Limits
The release does not name the University of California. It does not mention research compute or CalCompute. It does not give the source of the “over two million students” figure or of the top-50 count. Under “What’s Next”, it says only that leadership “will begin the implementation phase”.
⚠️ Contradiction: This release says “33 of the top 50 privately held AI companies”. The Governor’s releases of March 12 and March 18, 2025 say 32 (Governor ICYMI 32 of top 50 AI companies 2025-03-12 (web), Governor AI working group release 2025-03-18). The release of September 29, 2025, later than this one, also says 32 (Newsom SB-53 signing release 2025-09-29). This release names no list. The March 12 release links the Forbes AI 50 list.