--- title: Why California's Billionaire Tax Sent Tech Founders to Florida and Nearly Lost Mark Zuckerberg description: Prop 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on California billionaires. Page and Thiel left for Miami; Meta built a share deal to keep Zuckerberg. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-04T13:00:00.043Z updated: 2026-11-04T13:00:00.068Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/california-billionaire-tax-zuckerberg image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-8611579.webp categories: Politics, Economy content_type: News region: California, Florida publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Person name: Mark Zuckerberg --- California voters decided on Tuesday whether their state should become the first in the US to tax the net worth of billionaires. Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of residents worth more than $1 billion, with most of the money dedicated to replacing federal cuts to healthcare funding. The tax applies to anyone who was a California resident on 1st January 2026, and that date changed where some of the state's richest people say they live long before a single vote was cast. ## Who Left California Before the Deadline Google's co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, began cutting ties with California after the measure was unveiled, the Associated Press reported. Page bought two waterfront estates in Miami, and his representatives say he is now a Florida resident. Brin's representatives say he now lives in Nevada, on the Lake Tahoe side of the state line. Peter Thiel, the PayPal and Palantir co-founder, opened a Miami office for his family investment firm, Thiel Capital, at the end of 2025. David Sacks, the venture capitalist who advises the White House on AI and crypto, moved from San Francisco to Austin in December as his firm, Craft Ventures, opened an office there. Florida's appeal is simple arithmetic. The state charges no personal income tax and no wealth tax, and Miami has spent years selling itself as a home for technology money. Several of those who left hold fortunes tied to artificial intelligence: Alphabet, the company Page and Brin co-founded, builds the Gemini models, Palantir sells AI software to governments and Sacks shapes federal AI policy. ## How Meta Kept Mark Zuckerberg in California Mark Zuckerberg came close to joining them. He told Meta's board he was considering moving his main residence out of California over the tax, according to a filing Meta made with the Securities and Exchange Commission alongside its third-quarter results. In early September he told the board he would need to act on his residency and planned to put his Palo Alto home up for sale. The filing describes the potential bill as 'multi-billion dollar'. Meta's answer was a new class of non-voting Class C shares, to be issued from January 2027 at one for every existing share. Zuckerberg can sell 20% of his new Class C shares straight away, roughly 10% of his economic stake in Meta, to pay a tax bill without giving up any votes. The rest unlock gradually over eight years while he leads the company. In return, he committed to remain a resident of California, or of wherever Meta is headquartered, for eight years. A committee of independent directors negotiated the arrangement over eight months. The committee said keeping Zuckerberg at headquarters was critical as Meta races to compete in AI through Meta Superintelligence Labs. The filing also notes that he has taken a salary of $1 a year since 2013, so without a fix he would in effect be paying to serve as chief executive while living in California. ## The Case For and Against Prop 40 The measure is led by SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, which estimates California will lose $100 billion in federal healthcare funding over five years. Senator Bernie Sanders campaigned for it in California cities last month. Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, says it is time to collect the money to keep the state's healthcare system safe. The opposition includes the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who warns that the wealthiest residents would leave and take their tax payments with them. California's budget relies heavily on income tax from its richest residents. Newsom supports a national minimum tax on anyone worth more than $100 million instead. Planned Parenthood and the California Teachers Association have also joined the coalition against it, citing how the revenue would be divided and the risk to the budget from an exodus of wealthy taxpayers. The 'no' side has raised roughly ten times as much as the 'yes' side. Building a Better California, a committee opposing the tax, has raised more than $333 million, about 30% of it from Brin. It backs two rival measures on the same ballot, Propositions 41 and 42, which would block Prop 40 if either passes with more 'yes' votes. One would ban new taxes on financial assets and other personal property. Voters went into polling day divided. A Public Policy Institute of California survey in mid-October found 52% of likely voters planned to vote no and 46% yes, a reversal of its early September survey. ## What the Vote Means Beyond California If Prop 40 passes and survives its two rivals, the first payments fall due in 2027 and can be spread over five years. If it fails, its backers say the campaign has still shown other states that a billionaire tax can reach the ballot. Either way, the people it targeted have already shown you how they respond: some moved before the deadline, and the one who stayed negotiated a new share class to pay the bill.