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California tech leaders, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former CEO Eric Schmidt, are mobilizing against a proposed billionaire tax as the state prepares for a high-stakes November ballot.

The group, Building a Better California, aims to influence policy by backing political candidates and initiatives that align with pro-business interests, Bloomberg News reports.

According to the NYPost, a top target for the organization is a one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires, which critics say could force founders to sell significant portions of their companies, destabilizing stock prices and harming employees and ordinary investors.

"This has the potential to strip the founders of some of the world's largest companies of their controlling interests and force them to sell off a significant portion of their shares," the nonprofit Tax Foundation warned.

Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya has voiced similar concerns, noting on X that the measure could expand to affect non-billionaires.

"California isn't coming just for the rich," he said. "This bill, while disguised as a tax on the wealthy, is actually the infrastructure to tax everyone in California even more—but now on everything you own."

Despite the looming tax, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed confidence that the proposal will fail, citing an exodus of wealthy residents from the state.

Peter Thiel Expands Florida Holdings

Many billionaires, including Brin and Google co-founder Larry Page, have relocated business entities to other states such as Nevada and Florida, while venture capitalist Peter Thiel has increased his presence in Florida.

Some, like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and real estate developer John Sobrato, have indicated they plan to stay, though Huang acknowledged he would pay the tax if required.

Building a Better California has already raised $35 million, including a $20 million donation from Brin, to support pro-business ballot initiatives and expand middle-class homeownership.

According to Newsbytes, other prominent donors include Eric Schmidt, Michael Moritz, Max Levchin, DoorDash co-founder Tony Xu, Stripe's Patrick Collison, and The Wonderful Company co-owner Stewart Resnick, whose $2 million contribution was the largest from outside tech.

Abby Lunardini, spokesperson for Building a Better California, emphasized that the group has not taken a formal position on the wealth tax yet, calling it "early days" and highlighting their broader mission to expand homeownership.

The organization has also spent $11 million supporting measures to reform environmental review laws in California.

The proposed tax, backed by the Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West, would apply retroactively to anyone residing in California as of January 1 and could generate $50 billion to $60 billion if passed.

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