Uber founder Travis Kalanick joins the billionaire exodus from California to Texas
Texas Board of REALTORS chair Jennifer Wauhob talks to Fox News Digital about the Lone Star State’s recent fortunes and population growth that is ‘creating great things for Texas.’
Billionaire and Uber founder Travis Kalanick has officially joined the California exodus, revealing that he moved to Austin, Texas, just weeks before a proposed wealth tax targeted his estimated $3.6 billion fortune.
“Just to be clear, on December 18, I moved to Texas. I don’t know what is clear about December 18, but let’s say before January,” said Kalanick in an interview with TPBN.
“I get a little bit [of] FOMO is like, these people are going to Florida. I’m like, dude! Why so much Florida action?” he continued. “Come on guys.”
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Kalanick left his San Francisco home for Texas just 14 days before the new year, when the proposed billion-dollar tax retroactive deadline would take effect.
Travis Kalanick, founder and former CEO of Uber Inc., stands on the trading floor during the company’s initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10, 2019. (Getty Images)
Although not yet up for a vote in November, the proposal — backed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) — would force one-time tax of 5%. with the total number of California residents having a net worth of over $1 billion. The tax is due in 2027, and taxpayers can spread the payments over five years, with additional costs, according to the California Legislative Assessor’s Office.
If the measure is approved by voters, anyone who was a California resident on Jan. 1, 2026, will owe taxes, according to the proposal. Based on Forbes estimates, Kalanick may owe as much as $180 million.
Kalanick’s departure follows other longtime California billionaires who have moved themselves or their businesses to Texas in recent years, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale and venture capitalist David Sacks.
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Florida is also a fast adopter of California’s financiers and media, with names like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, financier Peter Thiel, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg moving to the “Gold Coast.”
Kalanick is using his move to launch his new venture, Atoms – formerly City Storage Systems – which focuses on industrial robotics and artificial intelligence that is “profitably employed”, he said in an interview. It’s a pivot from the “politics of an idea” that he says got him out of Uber in 2017.
“I was thrown out of the vision and movement I had invested my life in. I was powerless as I found the world works according to the laws of perception, not reality,” he writes on the Atoms website.
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When asked jokingly if he takes work calls through his AirPods while water skiing, Kalanick replied that he might start doing so.
“Dude, you should. I’d love it. Don’t make me happy,” she said.
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