Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick says he has traded California for Texas, joining a growing list of billionaires abandoning the state as lefty lawmakers push for a one-off tax their wealth.
Appearing on TPBN to discuss his robotics startup Atoms, Kalanick told hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays he relocated to Austin on December 18.
California lawmakers and activists are currently pushing a proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, which could appear on the state’s November 2026 ballot. The measure would impose a one-time 5% tax on fortunes exceeding $1 billion and would apply to people who were California residents as of January 1, 2026.
Kalanick joked he felt a twinge of FOMO when he hears about other wealthy Americans relocating to Florida.
“Why so much Florida action?! Like, come on homies,” he said.
Other billionaire tech figures to leave California for Florida include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal and Palantir investor Peter Thiel, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg.
While California still boasts the largest billionaire population in the United States, an increasing number have relocated to places such as Reno, Austin and Miami.
Kalanick also reflected on the turmoil surrounding his departure from Uber in 2017, which came after a number of scandals, workplace culture issues and pressure from investors.
He was also dealing with the tragedy of a boating accident that killed his mother and left his father seriously injured.
“I had been torn away from an idea and a movement that I had poured my life into. I had lost my bearings as I found the world increasingly operating by the rules of perception, not reality,” he wrote on the Atoms website.
Atoms — previously known as City Storage Systems — is an industrial robotics company that automates tasks in sectors including food service, mining and transportation using physical AI robots described as “gainfully employed.”
“I bled, but I did not perish. I got back up and fought my way back into the arena, back to my calling. Back to building,” Kalanick wrote.
