Palmer Luckey says he will stay in California despite billionaire wealth tax proposal

Palmer Luckey, the 30-year-old billionaire who sold Oculus VR to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, addressed California’s upcoming wealth-tax ballot measure at an invite-only press conference on Monday. While he condemned the proposal as “problematic” and warned it could push companies out of the state, he confirmed he has no plans to leave California, where his defense-technology firm Anduril is headquartered in Costa Mesa.

Anduril, which builds autonomous systems for the U.S. military, was most recently valued at $61 billion. Luckey, who grew up in Long Beach, has been a California billionaire since age 21. He said the tax measure, sponsored by a unit of the United Healthcare Workers union, would direct proceeds to health-care, education and food-assistance programs, including Medi-Cal. His objection is not to paying taxes per se, but to the way the bill would assess liability and allocate the revenue.

During the briefing, Luckey described pressure from fellow billionaires who urged him to leave as a form of solidarity against “really bad policies.” He acknowledged the argument but said he believes the issue can be resolved without abandoning the state. “I want to fight for California,” he said, adding that he does not intend to join a boycott of the tax.

The proposed legislation would tax “wealth” that includes unrealized and illiquid assets, with penalties that could reach 40 percent. A key point of contention is the treatment of voting control. The Tax Foundation notes that the measure would count a founder’s voting power as equivalent to ownership, meaning a person with 40 percent of the votes but only 10 percent of the equity could be taxed as if they owned 40 percent. Luckey explained that he has diluted his own stake heavily, giving employees a larger share of Anduril than he holds, while preserving voting rights to keep control within the company. He warned that relocating would cause him to lose those rights, which are tied to his status as an American citizen residing in the United States.

Based on his current voting position, Luckey estimates a potential liability of roughly 5 percent of Anduril’s $61 billion valuation, about $3 billion, if the tax were applied to his holdings alone. He contrasted this with Google co-founder Larry Page, who left California but still retains 27 percent voting control of Alphabet, a company valued at just under $4 trillion. Luckey concluded by saying he hopes the measure fails or, if it passes, that courts will block what he calls an unprecedented tax on control rather than ownership. The outcome will shape how founders with concentrated voting power navigate state tax policy in the coming years.