The proposed wealth tax in California has prompted some super-rich individuals to move to other states, but tech entrepreneur Palmer Laki ( Palmer Luckey ) has chosen to stay local. Despite the fact that this 34-year-old co-founder opposes the bill, he still believes it is worth staying in California.
Laki said at a press conference last week, "I think this tax bill – if you can even call it a tax – will cause a lot of problems." According to TechCrunch, he said, "It is causing many people who I don't want to leave to do so. It will also lead to some of the companies I collaborate with leaving the state, which is a problem for me."
"For now, however, I won't run away. I will stay," he continued, "I think California is a special place. I want to fight for California."
This entrepreneur, who grew up in Long Beach, has built all of his most significant career achievements in Golden State.
In 2012, he founded his first company, Oculus, in Irvine, California. Two years later, when Facebook acquired this virtual reality company for an estimated $2 billion, he joined the ranks of billionaires. Meanwhile, his more recent venture, a defense technology company named Anduril, which is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, was valued at $90 billion following a staff tender offer earlier this month.
According to Forbes' estimates, Laki currently has a net worth of about $5.9 billion, but he did not flee his home state in order to protect his wealth. Laki stated that he has no problem with paying more taxes, but he opposes the attempt by the union affiliated with United Healthcare Workers (United Healthcare Workers) – the initiator of the bill – to use those taxes “for their own purposes,” and he questions how the amount due is calculated. The initiators of the bill claimed that this money would be used to improve “healthcare, education, and food assistance” in California. He is also concerned that unliquidated, unsold assets will be included in his wealth, comparing it to “confiscation of future wealth.”
This tax increase measure Proposition has sparked quite a controversy; although many successful individuals such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former CEO Eric Schmidt have moved to states with more favorable tax policies, people like Laki still believe that it's worth enduring the cost to stay in California.
“This has always been a point of friction between me and some other billionaire friends,” said the millennial entrepreneur. “They would say, ‘Palmer, you have to stand with us. You can’t support these terrible policies. If you stay, if you don’t leave, it will send a signal to them that there will be no consequences.’ I understand that viewpoint, but I’m not involved in it right now because I still believe we can fix things.”
Fortune has contacted Anduril to seek a comment.
California Prop 40 causes some billionaires to leave the state
Well-known business figures in California have been engaged in intense debates surrounding Proposition 40: it is a one-time 5% tax on residents with assets exceeding $1 billion. This coastal state hopes to raise tens of billions of dollars in temporary revenue over several years to fund healthcare and education, as California is also the state with the largest number of billionaires in the United States.
The fate of Proposition 40 will be decided by voters tomorrow during the U.S. mid-term elections.
Some super-rich individuals from California have spent millions of dollars in an attempt to derail this proposal. According to The Guardian, tech billionaires have raised over $340 million and spend more than $1 million per day on campaigning against Prop 40; Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the head of DoorDash, as well as the CEO of Stripe, have all donated to the opposition camp.
Before the deadline for residency on January 1, 2026, which is Prop, many billionaires had already left the state. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have moved their business entities to Florida and Nevada, and Uber former CEO Travis Kalanick also changed his address to Austin.
Others, such as Peter Thiel of Palantir and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, have also moved from California to regions with more favorable tax benefits.
Jensen Huang also chose to stay: 'I'm not afraid of paying taxes'
Although Prop forced some people to leave, there was also a group of very influential billionaires who chose to stay, including Laki.
Jensen Huang, the ninth richest person in the world with a fortune of $180 billion, recently said, "The more you earn, the more taxes you have to pay. I have no problem with that."
The head of the world's largest chip company stated that he is a manifestation of the "American Dream," and that without the opportunities provided by the United States, he would not have been able to succeed. He was able to receive a higher education, start a company, pursue his dreams, and meet those people who made it possible for NVIDIA to become what it is today.
“I can afford to pay $8 billion in taxes over five years, and that in itself is a privilege,” Jensen Huang said last month on the CBS Sunday Morning program. “I’m not afraid of paying taxes. I’m just afraid of becoming poor.”
