Silicon Valley tech billionaires secretly banded together against a wealth tax
A major political battle is unfolding in California between the tech elite and labor unions over a proposal to impose a one-time 5% tax on the fortunes of billionaires.
A major political battle is unfolding in California between the tech elite and labor unions over a proposal to impose a one-time 5% tax on the fortunes of billionaires.
The Billionaire Tax Act initiative, proposed by the healthcare workers union SEIU-UHW, aims to close the hole in the healthcare budget left by federal funding cuts.
According to sources at The Standard, the fight against the tax has brought together the most influential figures on the Forbes list, from Google co-founder Sergey Brin to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. It all began with a secret Signal chat in the fall of 2025, where dozens of IT moguls and venture capitalists gathered to discuss possible counter-strategies.
The group also included Marc Andreessen, Michael Moritz, Harry Tan, Max Levchin, Patrick Collison, David Friedberg and others.
At first, the ideas in the chat were radical and business-like, such as someone suggesting simply buying a company that was collecting signatures for a union initiative and banning it from doing so. But then the billionaires moved on to more traditional, if chaotic, political action.
The public confrontation escalated in December 2025, when Silicon Valley congressman Ro Hanna spoke out in support of the tax. In response, the IT elite not only criticized him on social media (Jason Calacanis called the tax “an illegal asset seizure”), but also began to seek out and finance Hanna’s opponents in the primaries. Investors also poured heavily into the campaign of moderate San Jose Mayor Matt Meagan for governor, but he suffered a crushing defeat.
Despite spending tens of millions of dollars on various political committees and counter-campaigning, the tech titans’ initial efforts failed. The union collected 1.6 million signatures, almost twice the number needed to put the issue on the November 2026 ballot.
After a period of chaotic action, the billionaires focused their efforts on the Sergey Brin-backed Building a Better California organization. The organization raised over $100 million and was able to put three of its own counter-initiatives on the ballot, aimed at blocking the wealth tax.
The fate of the tax now largely depends on California Governor Gavin Newsom, who opposes the initiative out of fear that billionaires will flee the state en masse. He has until the end of June to negotiate a compromise with unions and remove the issue from the ballot. Regardless of the outcome, experts say the crisis has forced Silicon Valley’s usually apolitical IT elite to systematically engage in California’s political process.
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