{"id":119200,"date":"2026-01-04T00:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T00:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/119200\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T00:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T00:18:09","slug":"chamath-palihapitiya-says-people-worth-500-billion-scrambled-and-left-california-over-billionaire-tax-warns-that-it-will-deepen-budget-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/119200\/","title":{"rendered":"Chamath Palihapitiya Says People Worth $500 Billion ‘Scrambled And Left California’ Over Billionaire Tax, Warns That It Will Deepen Budget Deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya says a proposed California billionaire tax<\/a> is already driving ultra-wealthy residents out of the state, a move he warns could worsen the budget deficit rather than fix it.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Palihapitiya took to X that people he knows with a combined net worth of about $500 billion moved to leave California permanently after the state floated a proposed “billionaire tax,” which he described as an asset seizure-style levy.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople I know, with a collective net worth of $500B, scrambled and left California for good yesterday,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Don’t Miss:<\/p>\n

According to Palihapitiya, those individuals chose to exit immediately rather than risk being subject to the tax, arguing the state could ultimately collect less revenue as a result.<\/p>\n

He warned that losing high-net-worth residents would only expand California’s budget deficit, forcing lawmakers to rely on additional borrowing or broader tax hikes.<\/p>\n

“Without these people, the California budget deficit will only get bigger,” Palihapitiya wrote, adding that the burden would likely fall on ordinary taxpayers if wealthy residents depart.<\/p>\n

People I know, with a collective net worth of $500B, scrambled and left California for good yesterday. <\/p>\n

They took no risk because of the proposed asset seizure tax \u2013 introduced as a “Billionaire Tax”.<\/p>\n

Without these people, the California budget deficit will only get bigger.\u2026<\/p>\n

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Palihapitiya, previously, also criticized the proposal, arguing that the tax unfairly targets unrealized and illiquid wealth, particularly among startup founders.<\/p>\n

He said entrepreneurs often earn modest salaries while holding large equity stakes that cannot easily be converted into cash.<\/p>\n

In one example, he described a founder with roughly $1.2 billion in paper equity earning a $150,000 salary, who could be forced to come up with tens of millions of dollars in cash under the proposal.<\/p>\n

If the company later lost value, Palihapitiya warned, the tax obligation would remain unchanged, potentially leaving the founder insolvent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya says a proposed California billionaire tax is already driving ultra-wealthy residents out of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13573,16476,7,9,8,63101,63102,63103,19870],"class_list":{"0":"post-119200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-billionaire","9":"tag-budget-deficit","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-chamath-palihapitiya","14":"tag-palihapitiya","15":"tag-tax-hikes","16":"tag-wealth-tax"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}