CALIFORNIA IS BOOMING

SACRAMENTO – Fox News, MAGA Radio hosts, and Republican critics keep betting against California. The numbers keep betting on us.

Governor Gavin Newsom today highlighted the strength of California’s $4.5 trillion economy, which has grown by more than 50%—or $1.5 trillion— since he took office, along with recent revenues that came in $7.7 billion above forecast since April. Major revenue gains also follow voters’ recent passage of Proposition 2, put on the ballot by Governor Newsom and the legislature, which will help the state save more money during economic booms. From world-leading investments and returns, innovations, higher wages, and stronger business growth, California continues to lead the country in the industries and investments shaping the future.

What’s really happening in Governor Newsom’s California: stronger revenues, more investment, higher wages, ZERO projected deficit for two years, more room to build our reserves, and an economy that keeps outpacing the doom-and-gloom.

California is where the future gets funded — and the numbers aren’t even close. Under Governor Newsom, California remains the place where capital comes, companies scale, industries are built, and the future gets financed: 

• $366 billion in venture capital flowed to California companies as of August 2026 — more than three times the other 49 states combined.

• 75% of all U.S. startup funding this year is going to California companies. $385 billion in startup funding has been raised year to date — more than double last year’s total.

• 57% of all U.S. early-stage capital is in California, including $62 billion in seed and early-stage funding.

• More than half of America’s unicorns — privately held startups valued at more than $1 billion — are headquartered in California.

• In September alone, nine California companies became unicorns, representing 43% of all new U.S. unicorns that month, with the Golden State creating more “unicorns” in September than any country outside the United States.

• California companies drove more than 40% of the growth in value of U.S. publicly traded equities, despite the state representing less than 12% of the nation’s population.

• California tech keeps outperforming: 41 California-based technology companies delivered a 603% total return over the past decade — four times the gain of their global peers in the past two, three and five years. 

Keeping California at the forefront of innovation

California’s world-leading innovation ecosystem has been a major driver of the state’s economic success. Governor Newsom’s final bill of his tenure as Governor seeks to drive the next wave of Golden State innovation by putting a $7.5 billion research bond before voters to invest in the science, technology, universities, and breakthroughs that will shape California’s future and advance California’s status as the capital of innovation, research, and technology.

• California residents received more than 50,000 U.S. patents in fiscal year 2025—more than the next six states combined and more than four times as many as second-place Texas.

• California is home to more Nobel laureates than any other state or any country outside the United States, and this year’s awards only widened that lead. More than a third of America’s science Nobel laureates this century have ties to California, including five of the world’s nine science winners in 2025 alone.

• The University of California system received more U.S. patents than any other university worldwide in 2025, with 571 patents granted.

• California’s colleges and universities performed $14.4 billion in R&D in fiscal year 2024 — more than any other state.

• California has over 670,000 R&D jobs in 2024, more than Texas, New York, and Massachusetts COMBINED.

• California’s life sciences industry generated $394 billion in total economic output and supported more than 1 million jobs in 2025, including more than 400,000 direct jobs.

• California businesses performed more than one-third of all U.S. business R&D in 2024 — more than the next six states combined.

More jobs, more productivity, and more money in working people’s pockets 

Under Governor Newsom, California is driving national job growth and productivity, with wages 20% above the national average and strong family and sick leave policies. 

🥇Governor Newsom’s support for labor unions, working families, and economic development has made California the #1 state for workers in the nation. 

💪 California added 129,300 of the nation’s 496,000 net payroll jobs from September 2025 through September 2026—about 26%. California accounted for 14.6% of America’s net payroll job growth through September, adding 89,100 jobs during the first nine months of 2026.

↗️California continues to lead the nation in economic output, with new data showing California workers increased productivity by 4.2% in 2025, delivering the largest contribution of any state to national productivity growth. Representing about 14% of national output, California had the largest influence on national productivity.

🧑‍💻California’s payroll job growth rate was more than twice the national rate over the past year and more than twice the state’s share of new U.S. jobs relative to its population from September 2025 to September 2026.

💼Unemployment fell by 106,500 Californians over ten consecutive months through September. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.1%, matching its lowest level since February 2024.

💵California’s statewide minimum wage has risen from $12 an hour when Governor Newsom took office to $17.40 next year — more than two times the federal minimum wage.

Business is booming

Under the Newsom administration, the California economy has continued to dominate, despite Trump’s failed economic policies and constant political attacks by the right-wing media machine against the Golden State. 

🧑‍🏭AMERICA’S NO. 1 MANUFACTURING ECONOMY

• $391 BILLION in manufacturing output in 2025

• 18% larger than Texas’s manufacturing economy

• Nearly 1.2 MILLION manufacturing jobs

🥬CALIFORNIA FEEDS AMERICA

• $64.7 BILLION in farm sales in 2025

• 4.5% growth over the previous year

• Nearly HALF of America’s vegetables

• More than THREE-QUARTERS of America’s fruits and nuts

🚢 CALIFORNIA SELLS TO THE WORLD

• RECORD $188 BILLION in goods exports in 2025

• $162 BILLION in manufactured-product exports

• Nearly 55,000 small and midsize exporters

• Small and midsize businesses make up 94% of California exporters. 

💵 HOME TO SMALL BUSINESS

• 4.3 MILLION small businesses, 99.8% of all businesses in the state

• $5 MILLION in private capital dispersed to small business owners

• 7.6 MILLION Californians employed 

🏢 #1 FOR NEW BUSINESS STARTS

• $4 TRILLION economic output in the private sector

• More than 17,600 businesses started through California’s Technical Assistance Expansion Program and other state-supported small-business assistance efforts

• Over $4 BILLION in equity secured

🥇 CALIFORNIA COMPETES

• OVER $1.8 BILLION in tax credits to 271 businesses

•  $37.6 BILLION in private investment commitments secured

• 75,000+ full-time jobs created 

Saving ahead of time

Recently, California voters approved Prop. 2, or the Save for California’s Future Act, allowing the state to deposit up to 20% of tax revenue in the state’s rainy day fund, up from the current 10% ceiling, and to deposit even more revenue during economic booms. The change will help California save more during good times, building up funds to prepare for economic uncertainty. 

Governor Newsom recently signed new legislation to continue powering California’s economic engine: 

✅ Making a major update to California’s antitrust and consumer protection laws. Clamping down on anti-competitive behavior, encouraging competition, and expanding opportunities for entrepreneurs and workers — including by creating new authority for the Attorney General and district attorneys to combat monopolistic behavior while also protecting small businesses.

✅ Helping retailers open and operate faster by allowing businesses undertaking certain tenant improvements to hire qualified architects or engineers to review and certify that building plans comply with life-safety, health, and building code requirements.

✅ Protecting small businesses from abusive financial practices by unscrupulous financing companies. 

✅ Ensuring access to small business technical assistance by supporting providers who offer free or low-cost one-on-one, confidential consulting and training. This will help small businesses and entrepreneurs start, grow, and create jobs in California.

✅ Cutting unnecessary red tape that has kept a lower-cost fuel option out of reach for California drivers. Removing a regulatory barrier to make E15 — gasoline blended with up to 15% ethanol — available to California drivers.

✅ Building California’s fusion industry by creating a statewide strategy for fusion research, commercialization, manufacturing, and workforce development — helping turn cutting-edge science into a new California industry.

✅ Allowing entrepreneurs to turn empty storefronts into new businesses by creating a streamlined permit for pop-up businesses to operate in vacant commercial spaces for up to 120 days. 

✅ Keeping California competitive for major investments and jobs by extending the California Competes Tax Credit through 2032–33, helping attract and retain businesses investing and creating jobs in the state.