Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Moves to Texas Amid Proposed California Billionaire Tax
Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick has officially relocated from California to Austin, Texas, joining a growing list of billionaires leaving the state amid political and tax pressures. The move comes as California lawmakers push the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, a proposed measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on fortunes exceeding $1 billion for residents as of January 1, 2026.
Speaking on TPBN about his robotics startup, Atoms, Kalanick confirmed he moved to Texas on December 18, 2025. “Just to be clear, on December 18, I moved to Texas. I don’t know what’s so specific about December 18, but let’s just say it’s prior to January,” he remarked.
The billionaire’s departure underscores a growing trend of tech executives and ultra-wealthy Californians considering relocation as state lawmakers and activists push for higher taxes on extreme wealth.
This move means the 49-year-old’s estimated $3.6 billion fortune will avoid the proposed California billionaire tax if it is enacted.
Kalanick also joked about feeling a bit of FOMO over other wealthy Americans relocating to Florida. “Why so much Florida action?! Like, come on homies,” he quipped.
Those “homies” include some of the biggest names in tech who have left California in recent years, such as Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PayPal and Palantir investor Peter Thiel, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Kalanick’s move to Texas highlights a growing trend among tech billionaires seeking more favorable tax environments and business climates outside California.
While California still has the largest billionaire population in the United States, more wealthy individuals are relocating to cities like Reno, Austin, and Miami.
Reflecting on his departure from Uber in 2017, Travis Kalanick opened up about the personal and professional challenges he faced, including workplace scandals, investor pressure, and the tragic boating accident that killed his mother and seriously injured his father.
“I had been torn away from an idea and a movement that I had poured my life into. I had lost my bearings as I found the world increasingly operating by the rules of perception, not reality,” Kalanick wrote on the Atoms website.
His new venture, Atoms — formerly City Storage Systems — is an industrial robotics company that automates tasks in sectors including food service, mining, and transportation using physical AI robots described as “gainfully employed.”
“I bled, but I did not perish. I got back up and fought my way back into the arena, back to my calling. Back to building,” Kalanick added, highlighting his resilience and renewed focus on innovation.
