The “California Billionaire Tax Act”,
often referred to simply as the #billionaire #tax,
is a proposalthat would require any California resident worth more than $1bn to pay a
one-off, 5% tax on their assets to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare programs in the state.

It’s sponsored by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West,
and if it receives enough signatures from California voters, it will go to the ballot in November.

When the proposal was put forward at the end of last year,
many among tech’s billionaire elite threw a #tantrum.

Some opened offices or bought mansions in Florida or Texas,
vowing to leave California for good.
The fleeing rich included Palantir co-founder Peter #Thiel,
whose current net worth is $25bn;
Google co-founders Larry #Page and Sergey #Brin,
worth around $255bn and $240bn respectively;
and Donald Trump’s AI and crypto czar, David #Sacks,
whose net worth is not publicly known.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta CEO
Mark #Zuckerberg,
worth $229bn, has also bought a property in south Florida valued between $150 and $200m.

Thiel has additionally led the charge in donating to a lobbying group, the "California Business Roundtable",
which has pledged to fight the wealth tax.

The Palantir co-founder handed over $3m to the political action committee in late December.
Other major donors include realtors, entrepreneurs and private equity firms.
James #Siminoff, who founded the camera-embedded Ring doorbell company, also donated $100,000, according to public records.

“The most powerful money in politics is to be on the no-side of a ballot measure,” said #McCuan.
“You can even pre-empt something getting to the ballot, like a billionaire’s tax,
by explaining to everyone out there that this is a bad idea for economic growth.”

Tech investors and venture capitalists have been extremely vocal in their opposition to the tax,
saying that the state will lose revenue as billionaires flee and it will hurt the state’s ability to be economically competitive.

Just this week, Chamath #Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive and current venture capital investor, wrote
“the loss of this tax revenue was totally avoidable but is now forever”.
#Balaji #Srinivasan, an investor and former chief technology officer of Coinbase, wrote,
“the most successful tech founders of all time have now exited the failed state of California”.

Adding on, Paul #Graham, the co-founder of seed capital firm Y Combinator, wrote:
“It’s important that people like Zuck and Larry Page are willing to move in response to the proposed wealth tax.
It shows politicians what will happen if they try things like this.”

Joining the billionaires, #Newsom has pledged to fight the tax, saying it will “drive a race to the bottom” and stifle innovation as the ultra-wealthy leave.
“This will be defeated – there’s no question in my mind,” Newsom told the New York Times in January.
“I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/15/california-billionaires-state-elections