Newsom Signs Fusion and Quantum Funding Bills, Directs $30M to Quantum and Deep-Space Research

# What happened Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of measures and announced a $30 million state allocation aimed at strengthening California's quantum research and related infrastructure. The actions were announced at a UC Berkeley quantum laboratory and extend the state's Quantum California effort to support university research hubs, public-private incubators, and hardware supply chains.

# The legislative package

• Senate Bill 925 (Sen. Jerry McNerney): Directs the California Energy Commission (CEC) to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to commercialize fusion energy. The bill tasks the CEC with creating certification protocols, environmental-review frameworks, and pathways to scale fusion manufacturing.

• Assembly Bill 2647 (Asm. Lisa Calderon): Requires a statewide technical assessment of integrating advanced nuclear technologies with the grid to support California's goal of 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2045.

• Senate Bill 895 (University of California-sponsored): Places the California Science and Health Research Bond Act — a $7.5 billion bond measure — on the March 2028 ballot. The bond would fund public university capital projects, medical innovation, and emerging-technology research to reduce reliance on federal research funding.

# Funding and program details

These pieces together aim to fund applied hardware development, talent pipelines, workforce training, and regional coordination across academic and industry partners.

# Infrastructure and partnerships A highlighted infrastructure node is the UCLA Quantum Innovation Hub (QIH) at the new UCLA Research Park. The QIH has secured Boeing as an industry partner to advance physical-layer quantum networking, entanglement distribution over optical fiber, and system designs for space and defense communications. The hub will include an on-site entanglement-swapping testbed to model multi-node quantum network performance.

The state's strategy ties university nodes and corporate centers — including UCLA's QIH, the AWS Center for Quantum Computing at Caltech, Microsoft Station Q, and Google Quantum AI — to local critical-mineral facilities to support hardware supply chains.

# Why it matters for researchers and industry The fusion legislation creates a state-level pathway to commercial fusion deployment and manufacturing readiness, which could influence R&D priorities and investment decisions by public and private entities. The advanced nuclear technical assessment is designed to evaluate how new technologies could help grid reliability while meeting decarbonization goals.

The $7.5 billion bond, if approved by voters, would provide a significant state funding stream for university infrastructure and research projects, offering an alternative to federal grants. The $30 million allocation and related grants aim to accelerate near-term projects, incubators, workforce training, and hardware readiness.

# Immediate next steps and timeline

• The CEC will begin work under SB 925 to produce a fusion commercialization strategy and related frameworks.
• AB 2647 triggers a statewide technical assessment process for advanced nuclear integration.

• University hubs and public-private partnerships will proceed with planned research and testbeds supported by the announced allocations and grants.

# Bottom line California has combined policy, planning, and funding moves to accelerate fusion and quantum-related research and infrastructure. The package directs state agencies to produce commercialization and technical assessments while channeling immediate funds to university hubs, industry partnerships, and workforce initiatives to support near-term development and longer-term capital needs through a potential 2028 bond.