Mark Zuckerberg Agrees to Stay in California Despite Billionaires’ Tax Ballot Measure

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to support surviving successful Silicon Valley for 8 years, perchance exposing himself to billions of dollars successful one-time taxes if California voters o.k. a contentious ballot measurement adjacent month, according to a institution regulatory filing released Wednesday.

During a meal with Meta committee members connected September 9, Zuckerberg informed them that helium was considering leaving California due to the fact that of the measure, known arsenic Proposition 40, and that helium planned to database his Palo Alto, California location for merchantability 4 days later, the 109-page filing stated. The ballot proposal, which could beryllium taxable to lawsuits adjacent if voters o.k. it, calls for a one-time 5 percent taxation connected banal and different assets held by billionaires successful the authorities arsenic of January 2026.

Many affluent individuals, including Zuckerberg, presently debar important taxation payments by borrowing against their shares and taking debased salaries—$1 annually successful the Meta CEO’s case. Zuckerberg purchased a location successful Florida this past February, the Wall Street Journal reported astatine the time.

His imaginable cross-country determination acrophobic a peculiar committee of the board, whose members included lawyer Robert Kimmitt, task capitalist Charlie Songhurst, and DoorDash CEO Tony Xu. “The peculiar committee was mindful astir the difficulties the institution faced during the COVID-19 pandemic erstwhile Zuckerberg could not beryllium physically contiguous with the company’s absorption squad and did not privation the institution to look akin challenges going forward,” according to Wednesday’s filing.

Within days of the Meta committee dinner, the peculiar committee and Zuckerberg reached an statement that links his quality to merchantability peculiar institution shares to his continued residence successful California. It was finalized a week ago, and connected Wednesday, Meta announced the details. It plans to make a caller people of shares that clasp nary voting power. Selling these shares could perchance assistance rise funds for Meta’s costly investments into AI information centers, without diluting Zuckerberg’s existing voting control.

All existing shareholders volition person the caller nonvoting shares automatically successful proportionality to their existing holdings. Under what Meta called a “Founder Alignment Agreement” with Zuckerberg, helium tin merchantability 20 percent of those caller shares to assistance wage immoderate taxes helium whitethorn owe. The remaining 80 percent would beryllium disposable for merchantability successful chunks implicit the adjacent 8 years arsenic agelong arsenic helium remains successful California. Any effort to merchantability them aboriginal would necessitate offloading immoderate of his voting shares “unless determination are worldly unforeseen circumstances that would render it prudent oregon advisable for Zuckerberg to reside elsewhere.”

Notably, the statement specifies that Zuckerberg simply has to stay wherever Meta maintains its headquarters, truthful it’s imaginable that some helium and the institution could determination unneurotic to different state. Many California companies left for Texas, Nevada, and California successful caller years. Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are among the fistful of billionaires wide believed to person exited California implicit the imaginable tax.

But with overmuch of the astir pioneering AI improvement happening successful Silicon Valley, leaving the metropolis of Menlo Park could beryllium a hard proposition for the Meta committee to stomach. “The extremity is to support Zuckerberg continuing to pb the institution from California and successful adjacent proximity to Meta Superintelligence Labs,” the filing stated, referring to the institution portion down its caller Muse AI models.

In the end, the workout whitethorn person been for naught. Recent polling successful California suggests that with astir $129 cardinal spent campaigning against Prop 40, it volition neglect to muster capable votes.