California May Charge Billions. Check out the Inevitable Tech Billionaire Tantrum
Taking money from billionaires is ludicrous, and threatening to do it would be a good political sugar rush for anyone with the slightest knowledge of class (although it wouldn’t come close to creating “socialism” in America according to socialists like Doug Henwood). The state of California is now threatening to do it, and the predictable result is happening according to the New York Times: tech billionaires like Peter Thiel and the former CEO of Google and co-founder Larry Page are angry about the obligation and threaten to leave.
The political tool involved here is not a technical and revolutionary change to the tax code that happens to tax billions, but instead a tax on one billion, 5%. This comes in the form of a proposed ballot measure supported by organized labor—particularly the Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West.
Anyone living in California as of January 1, 2026 will be subject to the proposed tax, and the math works like this: If you have $20 billion in assets, you owe $1 billion, and you have five years to pay. Estimates from the union say the state will pull in about $100 billion, basically by legally robbing the 200 most hated people in the state.
If you followed the same drama in New York City during Zohran Mamdani’s childhood, you already know this next part by heart. According to The Times, Peter Thiel is now scaling an out-of-state office for Thiel Capital, and is finding a way to spend less time in California. Larry Page, listed by Forbes as the world’s second-richest person as of this writing, has begun moving three LLCs to Florida, the Times said.
David Lesperance, a tax advisor to billionaires, told the Times, “almost all of my clients are taking steps very quickly to separate California residences and move assets out of the state.”
Billionaire tech and health care investor Chamath Palihapitiya also played a hit, with X’s following post quoted by the Times: “The inevitable result will be an exodus of the country’s talented entrepreneurs who can and will choose to build their companies in less backward states.” The post The Times cites here does not seem to exist, perhaps because of Palihapitiya’s odd, Different Day use of the word “regressive.”
Palihapitiya’s work for X shows that he has been agonizing over this topic for days, however:
This stupid attack, by an incompetent California politician, on a productive California citizen caused him to go. It should not be lost on anyone that this has already cost Californians $10 billion in lost taxes from Elon and the number of well-paid workers who follow… pic.twitter.com/2aADLB4WWH
– Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) December 25, 2025
But are America’s rich really fleeing a country that has decided to tax them? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem like it so far. The state of Massachusetts passed something different: an expanded income tax for people making more than $1 million, and two years later, most millionaires eligible for the tax are reported to be in the state, not less.
So yes, Billionaires, we know that if this ends up being voted on and actually voted into law, many of you will portray Californians with less money than you as ungrateful and stupid children, and some of you will make good on your threat to leave. The question would be: will it be a happy state with good weather that also happens to produce new billionaires all the time actually regret What makes you cough up some of your money later? Who knows, but I doubt it.
