{"id":222563,"date":"2026-03-16T20:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/222563\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T20:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:21:07","slug":"another-billionaire-confirms-california-exit-uber-co-founder-kalanick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/222563\/","title":{"rendered":"Another billionaire confirms California exit: Uber co-founder Kalanick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick said he moved to Texas in December, adding to the list of billionaires who have left California ahead of a proposed wealth tax. <\/p>\n<p>In an interview on tech talk show <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GzVLpSIHHeY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TBPN<\/a>, Kalanick said he moved to Texas on December 18. He didn\u2019t explain the reasoning behind the move, but suggested he was motivated to do it before this year started.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s so specific about December 18, but let\u2019s just say it\u2019s prior to January,\u201d he said in the interview on Friday. \u201cSo I\u2019m a primary resident of Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also outlined plans to rename City Storage Systems \u2014 the parent company of a Los Angeles-based ghost-kitchen operator \u2014 to Atoms, which focuses on robots.<\/p>\n<p>Kalanick is among the billionaires who have been cutting back their ties to California as a debate about a proposed wealth tax heats up. Late last year, some of California\u2019s mega-rich have opened new offices and purchased more real estate in other states, and said they are thinking about moving.<\/p>\n<p>The California billionaire tax would apply to about 200 California billionaires who reside in the state as of Jan. 1. <\/p>\n<p>Under the act, Californians worth more than $1 billion would pay a one-time 5% tax on their total wealth. The proposal would help fund healthcare, education and food assistance. <\/p>\n<p>It still needs enough signatures to make it to the November ballot and get voter approval. <\/p>\n<p>A <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/billionairetaxnow.org\/frequently-asked-questions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">website<\/a> for the proposed tax says it would be difficult for billionaires to evade it. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir taxable wealth includes worldwide assets; therefore, they cannot avoid the tax by moving their assets outside of California,\u201d the website says. <\/p>\n<p>The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West is the union behind the act. <\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the wealth tax face an uphill battle. Lawyers, who work with billionaires, have said they will challenge the act if it moves forward and California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the idea. <\/p>\n<p>In recent months, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin converted several of their companies out of California. <\/p>\n<p>Page and Meta co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg have reportedly been buying multi-million dollar properties in Florida. Filmmaker <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-02-19\/billionaires-spielberg-zuckerberg-look-outside-of-california-amid-wealth-tax-proposal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steven Spielberg<\/a>, who owns homes on the West Coast and East Coast, also moved to New York to be closer to family. <\/p>\n<p>Kalanick\u2019s net worth is roughly $3.6 billion, according to Forbes. In 2020, he spent $43.3 million on a Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles, The Wall Street Journal reported. <\/p>\n<p>In the TBPN interview, Kalanick said he\u2019s owned a place in Austin for five years. The property is right on Lake Austin. The entrepreneur describes himself as an \u201cavid\u201d \u201calmost professional water skier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kalanick, who resigned as Uber\u2019s chief executive in 2017 amid investor pressure to step down, also unveiled his new startup, Atoms. <\/p>\n<p>The company makes \u201cspecialized robots with productive jobs\u201d and focuses on mining and transportation. Several companies, including ghost kitchen company, CloudKitchens are part of Atoms.<\/p>\n<p>Atoms didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company is hiring, and the job locations are in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick said he moved to Texas in December, adding to the list of billionaires who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1871,69833,13573,7,101649,9,8,101652,24105,1520,101650,18669,1747,564,101651,19870,101653,72],"class_list":["post-222563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-act","tag-atom","tag-billionaire","tag-california","tag-california-exit","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-chief-executive-mark-zuckerberg","tag-december","tag-interview","tag-kalanick","tag-parent-company","tag-tax","tag-texas","tag-uber-co-founder-kalanick","tag-wealth-tax","tag-worldwide-asset","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222563","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=222563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}