Brin spends over $100M fighting California's billionaire tax

Sergey Brin has donated another $20 million to Build a Better California, an advocacy group fighting the state’s proposed billionaire tax, according to a new filing. That brings total spending by the world’s fourth-richest man, whose net worth hovers around $267 billion, to more than $100 million — an effort to avoid an estimated $13.3 billion tax payment.

Prop 40, known as the billionaire tax, would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of around 200 billionaires living in California. Most of the resulting revenue would go toward funding the state’s healthcare programs. The state’s Medicaid program alone could lose up to $30 billion in federal funding once budget cuts under President Trump take effect next year.

Brin isn’t the only tech mogul looking for ways around the tax. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly bought a $170 million mansion near Miami this year, and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and fellow Google co-founder Larry Page have also left California.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has criticized Prop 40 over its potential to push billionaires and their businesses out of the state, calling instead for a national billionaires’ tax. “Today, the office worker can shoulder a higher tax rate than the heiress,” Newsom wrote in a blog post. “We should end the ‘tax-free lifestyle loan,’ the gimmick that lets the ultra-wealthy borrow against their stock portfolios while reporting no taxable income.”

Californians will vote on Prop 40 in November. The organization Brin is funding has proposed competing ballot measures that, if passed, could effectively block Prop 40 by limiting the introduction of new taxes.

Not every tech billionaire opposes the measure. Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang, who would owe around $8 billion in taxes, told Bloomberg in a January interview that he is perfectly fine paying it, saying he chose to live in Silicon Valley and would accept whatever taxes California applies.

Why it matters

The fight over Prop 40 tests whether California can tax its wealthiest residents without accelerating the exodus of tech leaders and capital that Texas and Florida have already courted.