Billionaire Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick moved to Texas—dodging a possible $180 million hit from California’s billionaire tax
Kalanick has owned a Lake Austin home for five years. He made it his primary residence two weeks before California’s proposed wealth tax would have applied to him.
Proposition 40, a proposed tax on California's billionaires, will be on the ballot next Tuesday. If passed, the tax would impose a 5% levy on individuals whose primary residence was in California as of January 1, 2026. This potential tax could cost billionaire Travis Kalanick up to $180 million. Kalanick moved to Austin, Texas, on December 18, 2025, just two weeks before the tax's deadline, to avoid it.
He now owns a home on Lake Austin, where he enjoys waterskiing. Other tech billionaires, such as Larry Page and Jeff Bezos, have also moved to Florida or Miami to evade the tax. A Stanford study suggests that about $540 billion, or nearly 30% of the wealth the tax could have collected, has left California since the measure was filed in October 2025.
If Proposition 40 passes, the revenue would primarily support public health care services. However, rival measures on the ballot, such as Proposition 41 and Proposition 42, could invalidate the wealth tax.
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