AI founder says he’s planning a ‘Billionaire March’ against California’s wealth tax

The fight over California’s proposed ‘Billionaire’s Tax’ is getting more complicated. This week, amid the ongoing debate from the tech elite about the worst bill, it became clear that someone was planning a so-called “March for Billionaires” in San Francisco. A website promoting the event appeared online, providing little in the way of context other than the pithy tag line: “Bullying entrepreneurs is popular. Losing them is expensive.”

The reaction at the time was disbelief, and many people thought the site was some kind of strange forgery. “This is a joke/satire right??” one social media user wrote before the news spread. However, now the organizer of this event has revealed that the march will definitely take placenot joke, and that it is scheduled to happen this coming Saturday.

The San Francisco Examiner first reported that the organizer of the event was revealed as Derik Kaufmann, the founder of AI startup RunRL, who previously participated in the Y Combinator accelerator program. Kaufmann told the Examiner that the event was not sponsored or organized by any outside group, no big money organizations or companies—just him.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Kaufmann — who also told the Examiner that he is no longer affiliated with RunRL — confirmed that the impetus for the next meeting is California’s proposed wealth tax, which the tech founder said he believes will “really hurt the tech economy.”

The policy in question, the Billionaires Tax Act, was introduced last year, and would require Californians worth more than $1 billion to pay a one-time tax of 5% on their total wealth. The law, supported by the state’s health care union, SEIU (Service Employees International Union), could pay for essential public services and help the state mitigate recent federal budget cuts, according to some experts. Still, the policy has led to massive protests from some prominent figures in the tech industry, many of whom have threatened to leave California or have already left. It also led to a lobbying frenzy in the California Legislature, in an effort to defeat the bill.

When asked why he opposes the law, Kaufmann expressed concern about how the bill could affect Silicon Valley’s startup economy. “This tax is particularly flawed,” he said. “It affects start-up founders whose wealth is only on paper. They will be forced to liquidate shares on potentially unfair terms, receive capital gains tax and relinquish control. Not to mention the difficulty of valuing private companies.”

“Many founders will face incredibly disparate tax liabilities,” Kaufmann continued. “Furthermore, there is no precedent for this kind of comprehensive wealth tax in the US. Sweden got rid of its own 20 years ago to avoid flying and develop businesses and now has over 50% more billionaires in each currency than the US.”

Online discussion about Kaufmann’s planned event continued to alternate between disbelief and derision. “I can’t imagine billionaires marching down the street,” said one social media user, about the event.

That person may be right.

Kaufmann told TC that, so far, he is unaware of the actual billionaires who plan to attend the march in their honor. Kaufmann said the event is likely to attract “a handful of spectators,” although he emphasized that it is not clear how many people will actually attend.

The ongoing outrage over this proposed tax is laughable, as it has long been known that this legislation has almost no chance of passage. That’s because California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that, if the bill somehow passes, he will veto it.