Vote on billionaire tax: Now the tech giants are fleeing

Because more than two-thirds of the electorate in California supports such a tax, nothing will soon stand in the way of it. California had become more democratic Governor Gavin Newsom fought tooth and nail against the proposal even coming to a vote. Newsom, often touted as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in the next election, sees the wealth tax on California’s ultra-rich as a threat to the economy and had promised – in vain – to keep it off the ballot.

According to an expert report from the University of Berkeley, the state’s billionaires have a total wealth of $2,190 billion. If the billionaire tax comes true and each of the 204 super-rich pays a one-off tax of 5 percent, experts expect additional tax revenue of around $100 billion within the next five years.

Die Tech-Mogule

Many of California’s billionaires work in the technology industry and have significantly increased their wealth as a result of the AI ​​boom. But that didn’t stop some of them from using a lot of money to fight the looming billionaire tax. For example, Google has co-founders Sergey Brin has invested tens of millions of dollars in a counter-campaign since January alone. Brin was able to increase his wealth by almost $100 billion in the previous year. With almost $260 billion, he is now considered the third richest man in the world.

Also other extremely wealthy tech moguls like Palantir co-founders Peter Thielcrypto billionaire Chris Larsen and the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have financed various opposing groups.

The push for a tax on the ultra-rich was brought forward by the healthcare workers’ union. Their argument: After the “Big Beautiful Bill” pushed through by US President Trump forced radical cuts in the health sector, new sources of income must be developed. The billionaire tax could be used to finance recently cut public programs in the state. Ninety percent of the income generated in this way should be earmarked for the purpose Healthcare flow. The remaining 10 percent is reserved for property tax administration, public education and food assistance to needy families.

“We will win”

1.6 million people in California have signed the union’s petition. More than twice as many as would have been needed to be included on the ballot. “The enthusiasm for the billionaire tax is unprecedented,” said Debru Carthan, vice president of the union, at a news conference Thursday. “The billionaire tax is on the ballot in November, and we will win.”

While the majority of California’s Democratic politicians oppose the tax because they fear that many super-rich people would leave, Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman who covers the Silicon Valley district, is taking issue with it: “I have no idea why Democratic elected officials or traditional Democratic allies wouldn’t support this,” Khanna said. “In times when Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire this is of great importance for our country. Are we really debating whether we should introduce a 5 percent tax?”

Bernie Sanders Plan

What is now brewing in California wants to happen Bernie Sanders for the whole USA: DThe 84-year-old senator from Vermont would like to impose an annual tax of 5 percent on the approximately 1,000 billionaires in the USA and thus raise a total of 4.4 trillion euros for the state.

However, the chances of introducing such a bill in Congress, which is currently controlled by Republicans, are currently zero.

Whether it’s a billionaire tax or not, at least one of California’s super-rich has no problem: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, with total assets of around $155 billion, would have to transfer around $7.75 billion to the California state. He announces that he will stay anyway. He told Bloomberg: „We chose to live in Silicon Valley and whatever taxes they want to impose, so be it.”