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American billionaire Sergey Brin’s $102 million campaign against California’s proposed billionaire tax appears to have paid off, with Proposition 40 heading for defeat as votes are counted.
The measure was trailing by more than 11 percentage points with about 60% of votes counted on Wednesday, according to Yahoo Finance. Earlier returns cited by CalMatters showed about 56% of voters rejecting it, citing the Associated Press. The race had not been formally called.
Proposition 40 would have imposed a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of California residents and trusts holding more than $1 billion as of Jan. 1, 2026. The levy would have applied to roughly 200 billionaires and covered stocks, bonds, business stakes and other valuable personal property, with real estate and some retirement accounts excluded.
The measure’s backers, led by the health care workers union SEIU-UHW, estimated it would raise about $100 billion, mainly for health care, food assistance and education. The state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office projected revenue in the tens of billions of dollars over several years.
Brin led the opposition. The Google co-founder gave $102 million to Building a Better California, a committee he founded with former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. In total, billionaire opponents and business interests poured $316.7 million into defeating the tax, including support for two competing measures, according to CalMatters.
Those rival measures also performed well. Proposition 42, which would ban taxes on financial assets, private businesses and pensions and bar retroactive taxes, led with about 55% support on election night. Proposition 41, which would require audits of new tax proposals, was trailing.
Under the state constitution, if either competing measure wins more votes than Proposition 40, it nullifies the billionaire tax.
Billionaires.Africa reported last week that Brin’s committee spent more than $50 million in a single week of October, as polls showed support for the tax slipping. A University of California, Berkeley poll found 50% of likely voters opposed it, up from 42% six weeks earlier.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also opposed the measure, citing analysis that it would reduce state revenue by less than $1 billion a year.
The union behind the tax is not giving up. SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan said the union plans to try again in 2028 if lawmakers fail to find another way to fund health care. “That’s not a hypothetical. That’s our plan,” he said.
The result comes as Brin’s fortune recovers from a steep October. He lost about $49 billion last month as Alphabet suffered its worst day as a public company, according to Forbes, before adding $7.6 billion on Wednesday as Alphabet shares rose nearly 5% in a post-election rally.
As a result, Brin heads into the final count with both his campaign and his fortune moving in the right direction.
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