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Californians are already voting on whether to implement a one-time 5% tax on billionaires that could generate as much as $100 billion toward healthcare and other social services over the next five years. And local billionaires are weighing in — with their wallets.
Approximately 200 billionaires in California would be subject to the Proposition 40 tax, the majority of whom live in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the 2026 Forbes Billionaire List.
Given the concentration of billionaires in and around Silicon Valley, it’s fair to assume that a significant portion of the revenue generated by the tax, should voters pass it, would have its origins here. The five wealthiest people in the Bay Area — Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang and Eric Schmidt — live in and around Palo Alto and have a combined net worth that exceeds $900 billion, according to data collected by Forbes at the beginning of 2026.
Beyond those five, 49 other billionaires list their primary residence in the Midpeninsula communities of Redwood City, Menlo Park, Atherton, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View, Woodside, Portola Valley and Los Altos Hills. None of them have contributed to the No on 40 campaign, although Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, said in a recent interview with CBS Sunday Morning that it would be a “privilege” to pay the tax.
At least a dozen billionaires from Silicon Valley have spent millions of their own money on efforts to oppose the tax, according to campaign finance documents reviewed by the Weekly.
By far the largest backer of the No on 40 campaign is Building a Better California, a political action committee that has spent $140 million to oppose the billionaire tax as of Oct. 28. The vast majority of that money — $103 million — comes from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has a home in Los Altos but listed his residency on campaign finance documents as Reno, Nev.
Building a Better California PAC is putting its fundraising toward one No on 40 committee: Doctors, Teachers, Small Businesses, Working Families and Public Safety Against the Reckless Wealth Tax Experiment.
The committee also received money from the California Medical Association, the California Primary Care Association Advocates, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California Votes PAC, United Domestic Workers of America Action Fund and another No on 40 PAC called Stop the Squeeze.
Despite the name of the committee suggesting a coalition of working-class supporters, the vast majority of its funding comes from billionaires like Brin. Other major Silicon Valley billionaires pitched in too, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has a home in Atherton and who contributed more than $40 million; venture capitalist and Menlo Park resident John Doerr, who pledged $40 million; another $12 million from Seattle Seahawks owner Vinod Khosla, who lives in Portola Valley; and $33 million from Stripe CEO and Redwood City resident Patrick Collisson.
Building a Better California PAC also received donations in the single-digit millions from Menlo Park billionaires Andrew Karam and Kavitark Ram Shriram, Palo Alto billionaire Baiju Bhatt, Mountain View billionaire Vlad Tenev, Los Altos Hills residents Hemant Taneja and George Marcus, and Robert Fisher, who lives in Redwood City.
When reached for comment, Building a Better California reiterated that many other groups, such as firefighters, business groups, Gov. Gavin Newsom and both candidates for governor also oppose Proposition 40.
“It’s rare for such a broad coalition to unite around any single cause in California, but it reflects the potentially devastating impact of this measure on healthcare, education, and our state’s economy,” the group said over email.
The broader No on 40 campaign is significantly outraising the Yes on 40 efforts. Beyond Building a Better California, there are three other committees that were formed to oppose Proposition 40.
One of them is Californians Against Tax Increases, sponsored by the California Business Roundtable Issues PAC. Schmidt, the former Google CEO, donated $2.5 million to the PAC, and Atherton resident Douglas Leone, the chairman of Sequoia Capital, contributed $250,000; his wife, Patricia Perkins-Leone, did the same. Palantir chairman Peter Thiel, who no longer lives in California but whose entrepreneurial projects were headquartered in Silicon Valley, put $3 million toward the PAC as well.
The PAC has contributed $835,000 as of Oct. 28 against Proposition 40.
Another committee, Golden State Promise, has received $450,000 from the business roundtable PAC and $10 million from billionaire Chris Larsen and his company, Ripple Labs. While Larsen lives in San Francisco, he is known for co-founding and investing in Silicon Valley tech startups. Right Path California Issues PAC, which has received money from the business roundtable PAC, has also contributed more than $580,000 against Proposition 40 as of Oct. 28.
The fourth and final ballot committee formed to oppose the billionaire tax is Stop the Squeeze, which was terminated on Sept. 19.
The money being raised to oppose the billionaire tax is also being used to support two competing measures — Propositions 41 and 42 — that would nullify the tax if it passes and either of them get a greater voter share.
Compared to the $130 million raised against the billionaire tax, the committees on the other side of the debate have secured a little over $33 million.
The Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West is the largest proponent of Proposition 40, sponsoring a Billionaire Tax Now committee and raising $32 million through various committees, nonprofits and PACs associated with the union.
“Billionaire Chris Larsen and some political insiders in Sacramento are opposing Prop 40 for their own political gain,” said Suzanne Jimenez, SEIU-UHW chief of staff and lead ballot sponsor. “They would rather spend millions to try and trick and confuse voters than solve the healthcare crisis that Californians are facing as a result of $100 billion in federal healthcare cuts.”
A smaller committee, Tax the Ultra-Rich Now, has raised close to half a million dollars, about a third of which has been in the form of smaller contributions from California residents. The other two-thirds, or $300,000, is from San Francisco millionaire Alan Davis.
Davis belongs to a group called Patriotic Millionaires, which advocates for a fair tax system, higher minimum wage and equal access to political power, according to its website.
Los Altos resident Scott Ellis, another member of Patriotic Millionaires, has spent the past several months coordinating with the Yes on 40 campaign.
“Once you’ve got someone who’s got $500 million or 2,000 millions of dollars … there’s nothing they can buy that makes their life better,” Ellis said in an interview. “It just becomes power, and I think that’s where we get into trouble.”
Ellis worked at HP and his wife had a successful career across various Silicon Valley tech companies, he said, allowing them to “never have to work again.” While the two would not be subject to the billionaire tax, Ellis said he would also support a tax that affected him. Although he said the one-time tax through Proposition 40 is a step in the right direction, he believes the state should go further with a net worth threshold that signals financial success (he suggested $30 million), after which anything in excess would be heavily taxed to support social services.
One of the primary criticisms of Proposition 40 is that the tax is a risky experiment that could cause billionaires to flee the state en masse, causing California to lose out on millions — if not billions — in income and property tax revenue. A recent report from Stanford University’s Hoover Institution projects that the tax would generate far less revenue than its proponents estimate and, over time, could become a net-loss for the state.
The San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board also came out against the tax on this basis, but Ellis said the argument is “not the Silicon Valley attitude.”
“This is Silicon Valley. What do we do here? We innovate. We invent. That’s what it’s about,” Ellis said.
Although Palo Alto has as many as 20 billionaires who claim residency, the City Council declined to take a position on the billionaire tax.
When asked at a public Q&A on Wednesday, Mayor Vicki Veenker said that the revenue it would generate would not be a local consideration, even if some city residents would be subject to the tax
“It just didn’t rise to the level of immediacy for local government,” Veenker said.
