I've been writing about the exodus of billionaires from California for a few weeks now. As previously mentioned, three of the five richest men in the state have already made plans to leave. The NY Post published a story yesterday about Google co-founder Larry Page's new digs in Florida.
A trust linked to the Google co-founder shelled out $14.97 million to add to his growing compound in affluent Coconut Grove, South Florida Business Journal reported.
The 6,355-square-foot residence rounds out Page’s multi-parcel, 4-plus acre estate assembled over the course of January, now worth more than $188 million...
Corcoran’s Julian Johnston told The Post that the luxury market saw a huge rush of Palo Alto buyers and renters near the end of 2025.
“They all only wanted to see properties that they could close before the end of the year,” Johnston said.
If you've been following this then you already know why billionaires were looking for property they could close on before the end of the year. California's wealth tax isn't being passed by the legislature. Instead a union is trying to get it on the ballot this November. If they get it on the ballot and if it passes, it would retroactively apply the wealth tax to any billionaire still living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026. That gimmick was intended to limit the number of billionaires who could avoid it, but it seems to have backfired.
But not everyone who is thinking about leaving has left yet. There are several reasons for that hesitation. First, it's not clear the wealth tax is going to pass. Second, even if it does, it's not clear that the retroactive aspect of the tax would survive a court challenge.
In any case, the venture capital aligned news site Pirate Wires just published an article about 21 billionaires who have either left or are planning to leave. None of the billionaires that author Mike Solana spoke to were willing to go on the record. They all recognize that demonizing them is a critical part of the campaign to pass this wealth tax. After all, this is a tax aimed at around 200 people in a state of 39 million. So it's intended to be personal. Overall, the majority plan to get out of the state, though many are waiting to see if the measure passes.
Three men I spoke with in the largest billionaire Signal chat said they ran an informal poll, and seventy percent of the chat (around sixty people, not all of whom were billionaires) indicated they would leave the state if the ballot proposition passes. According to that same poll, around 15% have already left the state.
I’ve spoken with around ten percent of billionaires in the state myself. Of the 21 men I interviewed, 20 would have been impacted by the ballot measure. All 20 of them, including the Democrats, as well as several of the most committed diehard proponents of revitalizing San Francisco, are now developing an exit plan. (Three have already left.) Almost all of them have either purchased property out of state or are in the process of buying property out of state now; almost all of them have engaged lawyers to help them navigate what they see as a potentially years-long legal battle...
The proponents of this wealth tax are promoting it as a "one-time" tax, but none of the targets of the tax believe that.
“I think 100 percent of people who are looking at this understand it is being marketed as a one-time thing, but it will not be one time, and it will not only target billionaires. Once the structure is put in place, it is going to expand,” one impacted businessman explained.
Another area where proponents of this may have miscalculated is that many of the billionaires they are targeting are Democrats, some of whom make big donations to the party. The wealth tax is being described as a red-pill for many of them.
“It’s an awakening for a lot of people,” said one of the most impacted, well-known, and beloved founders I spoke with.
And it seems to be an awakening for Democrats specifically.
“If it does or doesn’t pass, this is the single most radicalizing red pilling thing to ever happen to push them into the arms of the Republican Party, and I think it makes clear, more than anything else that happens, that it’s not about helping the poor but impoverishing the rich, and the pain is part of the point. That’s a new realization for a lot of people.”
Another billionaire said, "The vast majority of people affected by this are Democrats, including many of the biggest donors to the party." Maybe the unions were counting on that. Maybe they assumed that having those billionaires on their team would mean they would go along with this plan, But it doesn't seem to be playing out that way. The Democratic billionaires, even the ones who have expressed support the concept of a wealth tax, are thinking about leaving too.
It really is a challenge for billionaires to pick up and leave. Mostly, they aren't eager to leave their social circle of like-minded friends, many of whom live in Silicon Valley. But this tax has already broken up some of that social foundation. Many people have already made moves to leave. If the tax makes the ballot, you can bet that more will follow. And finally, if it passes this November, that's when you'll see a lot more of these exit plans play out.
But even if the tax fails, which is possible, it's now clear to many of these people that something like this is inevitable in a deep blue state like California. Even if they avoid leaving now, they'll probably have to do it sometime in the not too distant future.
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