Nina Joudeh writes for the New York Post about another successful Californian who has fled the state.
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick says he has traded California for Texas, joining a growing list of billionaires abandoning the state as lefty lawmakers push for a one-off tax on their wealth.
Appearing on TPBN to discuss his robotics startup Atoms, Kalanick told hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays he relocated to Austin at the end of 2025.
“Just to be clear, on December 18, I moved to Texas. I don’t know what’s so specific about December 18, but let’s just say it’s prior to January,” said Kalanick, pointedly.
California lawmakers and activists are pushing a proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, which could appear on the state’s November 2026 ballot.
The measure would impose a one-time 5% tax on fortunes exceeding $1 billion and would apply to people who were California residents as of January 1, 2026,
That means the 49-year-old’s estimated $3.6 billion fortune will not be subjected to the tax should it be introduced.
Kalanick joked he felt a twinge of FOMO when he hears about other wealthy Americans relocating to Florida.
“Why so much Florida action?! Like, come on homies,” he said.
Those ”homies” would be billionaire tech figures to leave California for Florida., including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal and Palantir investor Peter Thiel, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg.
While California still boasts the largest billionaire population in the United States, an increasing number have relocated to places such as Reno, Austin and Miami.
Kalanick also reflected on the turmoil surrounding his departure from Uber in 2017, which came after a number of scandals, workplace culture issues and pressure from investors.
He was also dealing with the tragedy of a boating accident that killed his mother and left his father seriously injured.
