Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Threatens to Leave California if Wealth Tax Passes

25 Oct 2026, 23:08 by Lucas Nolan · Breitbart

Meta disclosed this week that CEO Mark Zuckerberg could leave California if voters approve a billionaire wealth tax this November, prompting the company to offer him a financial incentive to stay.

Politico reports that in a filing with the SEC, Meta said Zuckerberg told the company’s special committee he was weighing a move out of state. According to the filing, “Zuckerberg informed the Special Committee that he was evaluating relocating his primary residence outside California and that steps toward any such relocation, including any listing of his residential real estate in California on the market, would be public and inevitably noted and commented upon by Company employees and, accordingly, raise questions for management of the Company going forward.”

The special committee decided it was worth keeping him close to home. Meta concluded that Zuckerberg’s continued leadership matters to the company as it spends heavily on AI and competes against rivals in the field. As the filing put it, “The goal is to keep Mr. Zuckerberg continuing to lead the Company from California and in close proximity to Meta Superintelligence Labs.”

So Meta agreed to gradually lift restrictions over the next eight years on Zuckerberg’s ability to sell certain shares. The benefit depends on him staying in a leadership role and staying based near the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. Under the plan, Meta would create a new class of shares letting Zuckerberg sell up to half his economic stake in the company without losing his voting control, which comes from the special shares he already holds.

Meta acknowledged the arrangement carries financial risk given the ballot measure, warning in the filing of a “significant, multi-billion dollar tax payment.”

The measure itself, which California voters will decide on in November, would impose a one-time five percent tax on billionaires’ assets. Several prominent tech figures oppose it, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, investor Ron Conway, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu and crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, and they have spent millions of dollars fighting it. Xu also sits on Meta’s special committee.

Not everyone in the industry is against the tax, though. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said he wouldn’t mind paying it.

Breitbart News previously reported on a range of tech CEOs and innovators criticizing the billionaire wealth tax:

A key issue raised by the tech community is how the potential wealth tax might treat paper profits from stock gains and stakes in companies that have not gone public, which is a common form of compensation among startups that have yet to become profitable. Figma cofounder and CEO Dylan Field pointed out that founders and potentially early employees could be subject to the wealth tax but would not be able to use company stock to pay it. Some founders may also face capital gains taxes, resulting in a “double tax event.” Field also highlighted the challenges founders may face if their startup has an unsuccessful year while still being liable for the wealth tax. They may be forced to lower their startup’s valuation through a “down round,” making it more difficult to attract talent and investors, take out loans they may struggle to repay, or leave California altogether. “Silicon Valley startups (ironically) follow the herd. Once enough respected companies/founders establish a pattern, other startups will follow, even if the wealth tax does not apply to them yet,” Field noted on X.