This piece was originally published in Pirate Wires.
Quorum at the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party. We’re a little over a month into an industry-wide conversation about the future of tech in California, which is largely taking place off social media. At this point, most people know the conversation was triggered by a ballot proposition floated by the state’s largest healthcare union, which seeks to legalize a first-of-its-kind asset seizure targeting (for now) billionaires. But while there’s been a bit of tabloid reporting on the existence of private group chats, where the question of whether it’s safe for founders to remain in the state is once again being litigated by industry leaders, it seems mainstream reporters have thus far failed to speak with any actual billionaires impacted by the chaos. So, in my capacity as the most well-sourced journalist in the history of technology writing (I think actually?), I decided to fill that gap.
Over the last week, I spoke with 21 billionaires about the looming prospect of a wealth tax. We discussed whether they left or are planning to leave California (most of them are), what a wealth tax means for the technology industry, and finally how, if at all, they plan to fight back. The men I spoke with include founders of companies working on a diverse range of technologies including artificial intelligence, defense, cryptography, security, biotechnology, finance, and general software development, as well as prominent venture capitalists at several of the most famous firms in the world. In total, these men are responsible for something like 50,000 employees, running companies in California roughly worth a combined $1.3 trillion.
