Google\u2019s parent company Alphabet has reportedly more than quadrupled its office space in Miami this year after co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin bought mansions in the area, fleeing California ahead of a proposed tax on billionaires.<\/p>\n
This spring, Alphabet signed a lease to expand its Miami space to about 45,000 square feet, adding to its current 10,000 square-foot satellite office in the city\u2019s financial district, Bloomberg reported<\/a>, citing people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n Page and Brin are the second- and third-richest people in the world, with net worths of $257 billion and $237 billion, respectively, according to Forbes. <\/p>\n Alphabet has reportedly more than quadrupled its office space in Miami this year. Francisco \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n Their recent real estate purchases in South Florida helped drive Alphabet\u2019s decision to expand, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n Over the past year, Page bought $188 million in Miami real estate, including a $101.5 million estate in the upscale Coconut Grove neighborhood. <\/p>\n Brin snapped up a Miami Beach waterfront home for a cool $51 million.<\/p>\n The billionaire duo represent some of the highest-profile exits from the Golden State ahead of the November midterms, when voters will weigh in on a ballot measure that could impose a one-time 5% tax on those worth over $1 billion.<\/p>\n Page and Brin, who built their fortunes in California after creating Google in 1998 as two Stanford University grad students, started cutting ties with the state earlier this year \u2013 terminating or moving several limited liability companies.<\/p>\n Brin and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have joined forces with some of Silicon Valley\u2019s biggest moguls <\/a>to create a pro-business organization that is poised to lobby against the billionaire tax.<\/p>\n Larry Page is the second-richest person in the world with a $257 billion net worth, according to Forbes. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n Page and Brin stepped down from their executive roles in 2019, but they remain on Alphabet\u2019s board and still hold majority voting control.<\/p>\n Even after the expansion, Alphabet\u2019s Miami offices are small compared to the tech giant\u2019s 10 million-square-foot Mountain View, Calif., campus and its 1.7 million square-foot New York City outpost.<\/p>\n But the Miami moves are a sign that wealthy individuals fleeing high-tax states like California and New York aren\u2019t just scooping up property in South Florida \u2014 they\u2019re expanding their business presence and potentially boosting the local economy, too.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up to receive On The Money by Charlie Gasparino in your inbox every Thursday.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Other tech bigwigs have made major real estate purchases in the area, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s record-breaking $170 million purchase of a \u201cbillionaire bunker\u201d on a private island near Miami.<\/p>\n Palantir CEO Alex Karp bought a Miami Beach home last year and went on to announce the company was moving its headquarters from Denver, Colo., to Miami.<\/p>\n Before billionaires started leaving California, New Yorkers fled for Florida in droves during the pandemic as they sought safer, cheaper and sunnier lifestyles<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sergey Brin is the third-richest person in the world with a $237 billion net worth, according to Forbes. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n More than 125,000 New Yorkers left for Florida between 2018 and 2022 and took nearly $14 billion in income with them, according to the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission.<\/p>\n