Silicon Valley billionaires weigh exit strategies as California votes on new tax
The taxman cometh.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Nurphoto via Getty Images
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- California’s Proposition 40 would place a one-time 5% tax on billionaire residents’ net worth.
- Larry Page could owe more than $14 billion if the tax applies to him.
- Jensen Huang says he is willing to pay billions in California taxes and is not planning to leave.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg threatened to leave California over the so-called “billionaire tax,” while speculation abound Google co-founder Larry Page already did. Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he’s “not afraid” of paying taxes.
California’s Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires who were California residents on January 1st, 2026. A public vote is scheduled for November 3rd.
Meanwhile, speculation about what local billionaires would do has been circulating since the beginning of 2026, when reports emerged that Page had bought 2 houses in Miami for around $173 million in total.
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Page’s net worth is estimated at $287 billion, meaning he could owe more than $14 billion in taxes.
While some unconfirmed reports claim that Page has already left California, neither the billionaire nor his companies has publicly commented on the matter.
In the meantime, in interviews throughout this year, Nvidia’s CEO has emphasized that he is fine with paying billions in taxes in California. In January, he told Bloomberg that he had not even thought about leaving the state.
According to the billionaire, he chose to live in Silicon Valley, saying, "Whatever taxes I guess they would like to apply, so be it."
In a CBS News interview this past September, he said that the fact that he can afford to pay $8 billion in taxes over 5 years "is a privilege."
"I'm not afraid of paying taxes – I'm just afraid of being poor," Huang said.
Meta pays Zuckerberg to stay
In either case, Page and Huang are just 2 examples of tax-related strategies among the super-rich. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz also reportedly chose Miami for tax reasons.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg threatened to leave California, but struck a deal with Meta to stay in the state.
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According to Oxfam, an organization focused on fighting inequality, data published in April this year showed that California’s 246 billionaires had a combined wealth estimated to have jumped 31% between March 2025 and March 2026, reaching $2.061 trillion.
A paper by 2 Stanford academics found that more billionaires had left California than expected and that the tax’s net effect could be negative.
