Worried that tougher rules could cut into their businesses, tech giants now see California’s approach to both issues as appealing national models, and hope to push them more widely.

Megan Stokes, head of state policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a Washington-based tech group, said that the industry intends to press other states to embrace California’s approach.

State legislators “may not necessarily want to get into a dogfight” with tech lobbyists on AI or age laws, said Stokes. “They might say, ‘Let’s go look at California, where we already saw this play out earlier in the session and we can save ourselves some time and aggravation.’”

Dean Ball, a former top AI adviser in the Trump White House, said California’s new AI safety law would be a “very fine national standard” — provided that it blocks more aggressive AI safety rules from elsewhere.

“There’s a version of the future in which [California’s law] just gets copy-and-pasted by a bunch of other states,” said Ball, now a senior adviser at the industry-friendly Foundation for American Innovation.

If the tech lobby succeeds, it could usher in a new regime in which AI risks and kids safety are broadly regulated across the U.S., but in ways that largely shield tech giants from strict AI rules and major lawsuits.

This shift marks a realignment in the national politics of tech. For years, “California-style” regulation was a dirty word among global tech giants. With a strong progressive streak and tech-savvy lawmakers, the state has historically been Silicon Valley’s chief antagonist on everything from data privacy to kids’ safety and AI regulation.

Progressives credit California’s new détente with the tech sector to Newsom, whose widely expected run for president could benefit from Silicon Valley’s donor base, parts of which have recently thrown their support to President Donald Trump.

Stokes credited Newsom for being willing to hear out industry concerns. But she said California legislators also worked closely with tech lobbyists to ensure the state’s new AI and age laws were acceptable. “There was a lot of work that went into making these bills work, making them pragmatic,” she said.

The tech lobby is looking for its next win in New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul has until the end of the year to sign a stricter AI safety bill now sitting on her desk. Unlike some governors, Hochul is able to unilaterally amend legislation — and tech lobbyists are pressing her to soften it in ways that mirror California’s new law.

“Maybe she looks at that and says ‘Hey, let’s move some things in line with [California],’” said Stokes.

An emerging concern for the tech industry lies outside Democratic strongholds like New York and California. A wave of populist, tech-skeptical Republicans are now driving tech laws in states like Utah and Texas, which recently approved new age-verification rules strongly opposed by industry. Those states and others are also mulling safety rules on advanced AI that lobbyists warn would chill innovation.

At the federal level, Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief lobbyist, is publicly pressing Washington to head off laws from red and blue states alike by enacting AI safety regulations that preempt a conflicting patchwork of state rules.

“The most responsible way to govern powerful technologies like AI is with clear national standards,” Lehane wrote in a post that praised California’s new law for creating “a path toward harmonization with the federal government.”

Tech companies are also working to block new age-verification rules in Texas, which put large platforms like Apple and Google at significant legal and financial risk. One senior tech-industry lobbyist, granted anonymity to candidly discuss strategy, said they’re eyeing “an opportunity to do something federally” that mirrors California’s new age-verification regime.

But with the White House preoccupied and Congress at a standstill, Washington is unlikely to move on any new tech regulations. And so Big Tech is chiefly focusing on influencing state lawmakers, a strategy that lobbyists used to great effect in earlier fights over data privacy.

In Ohio, tech lobbyists are already making the case for adopting Sacramento’s age-verification regime. Ohio legislators are split between favoring California’s tech-friendly approach and adopting what the senior tech lobbyist called more “extreme” age-verification rules favored by Texas, Utah and Louisiana. The California version adds new requirements to protect children, but largely shields tech giants like Google and Apple from being sued if something goes wrong.

California’s new rules complicate the picture for Republicans in Washington, who have been pushing their national tech agenda by using the state as a bogeyman.

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who wants to help the industry by slapping a 10-year ban on state AI laws, has routinely invoked the specter of far-left tech rules coming from California.

“We’re seeing states like California jumping in and joining Colorado with aggressive left-wing AI legislation, essentially mandating that AI be ‘woke,’” Cruz told POLITICO late last month.

But as the tech lobby and its backers warm up to Sacramento, the senator could face pressure to block other states’ AI safety rules with a federal law that uses California as a model.

The thaw between California and tech isn’t complete: The AI safety and age-verification laws were part of a larger suite of tech regulations that Newsom signed in September and October, many of which the industry opposed as meddlesome and overly restrictive.

But on several issues important to Silicon Valley, the California governor has elevated industry-friendly legislators while acting as a bulwark against progressive ideas — a bewildering shift for some of Sacramento’s longtime critics in the industry.

“California is developing a competence as a tech regulator, I guess,” said Ball.

Newsom began his political career in San Francisco, the epicenter of the tech sector, and has maintained close ties to the industry. His veto of last year’s AI safety bill paved the way for this year’s watered-down version, and he continues to veto other bills the industry flags as unworkable — most recently an AI chatbot bill backed by California’s attorney general.

It’s not clear if Sacramento’s more tech-friendly approach will persist once Newsom leaves office in early 2027. Many of the Democrats running to succeed Newsom hail from Southern California, hundreds of miles from Silicon Valley.

Jason Elliott, Newsom’s former deputy chief of staff, said the governor’s tech ties helped “set the tone” for precise and balanced tech regulation. “That’ll change with a new governor,” he added.

Ball said several of the new AI laws approved by Newsom remain concerning. And he, too, worries that California’s newfound “competence” won’t survive once the governor departs.

“We could have an insane person in California, and then this dynamic breaks,” said Ball.