Google Cofounder Larry Page Buys $171M of Florida Properties As California Wealth Tax Looms

A proposed California wealth tax has triggered an exodus of billionaires from the state. The one-time 5% tax on California residents worth over $1 billion, proposed by a healthcare workers' union in November 2025 and supported by lawmakers, including Rep. Ro Khanna and Senator Bernie Sanders, is expected to generate $100 billion. The revenue would be used to fund public schools and food assistance programmes.

The tax would be imposed on the stock holdings and business interests of billionaires. However, real estate holdings would be exempt from the tax, as residents already pay property taxes, according to the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Billionaires will be allowed to spread their tax payments over five years.

The proposed initiative, which needs over 870,000 signatures to qualify for the November 2026 ballot, would retroactively tax billionaires living in California as of 1st January. Conveniently, Google co-founder Larry Page, who has a net worth of $269 billion and is ranked the 2nd richest person in the world by Forbes, reportedly purchased Miami properties for $171 million before the potential tax act could impact his assets.

Miami Compound Spanning Acres

Page reportedly bought a 4.5-acre property in Miami's Coconut Grove neighbourhood in December for $101.5 million. The sprawling compound was previously owned by the late restaurateur Jonathan Lewis, according to Miami-Dade County records.

The Jills Zeder Group's Danny Hertzberg, an agent who was involved in the massive transaction, said wealthy Californians are lining up to scoop up properties in Florida.

'We started feeling an impact, let's say in early December, which really picked up going to the end of the year. California's dominating the high end of the market. The market right now, in terms of offers and active buyers, has a huge California presence, and it's directly related to 5% net worth,' Hertzberg told a media outlet.

Furthermore, the Tropical Frontier Revocable Trust, which Page is associated with, also purchased another property less than a mile away for $71.9 million in January. The trust lists Florida attorney Benjamin Babcock and Rosewood Family Advisors COO Mary McFadden Quisenberry as trustees.

Tax filings of Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation, which is Page's family foundation, revealed that Rosewood Family Advisors offered tax and accounting services to the foundation in 2024. Meanwhile, Page also plans to relocate several of his California businesses to Texas, Florida, and Delaware.

Billionaires Oppose the Tax Bill

Several wealthy business leaders, such as Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, have cautioned that the tax would compel the wealthy to 'sell huge chunks of our companies' to cover the bills. 'Now, me and my co-founders have to somehow come up with billions of dollars in cash,' he wrote in a recent post on X.

Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla also said that a wealth tax could drive billionaires out of California altogether. Pershing Square's Bill Ackman criticised wealth taxes, arguing that they 'effectively represent an expropriation of private property and have many unintended and negative consequences.'

Even Palantir Technologies co-founder Peter Thiel donated $3 million to the California Business Roundtable's political action committee, which is actively opposing the wealth tax.