In addition to being the CEO of NVIDIA (the most valuable company on the planet), Jensen Huang is in the top 10 richest people in the world according to Forbes. He has a net worth of $160.7 billion, a salary of $1.5 million a year (up 50% last summer) with $49.9 million in bonuses and 3% of his company’s shares. There it is nothing.
As for properties, he owns a luxurious mansion on Billionaire’s Row in San Francisco and another, considered his habitual residence due to its proximity to NVIDIA’s headquarters in Santa Clara, in Los Altos Hills. In the first I had David Sacks as a neighbor and in the second the founders of Google. The use of the past tense is not a mistake: they have all moved away to avoid the tax on the rich of 2026. For the CEO of NVIDIA it is not a problem: ““I’m perfectly fine.” with California’s new multibillion-dollar tax.
Jensen Huang is not alone. But they are an absolute minority
In an interview with Bloomberg TV last Tuesday, Huang said that “We choose to live in Silicon Valley, and whatever taxes they would like to apply, so be it” and that he had not thought about moving even once and that, despite the fact that his company has offices in several countries: “we work in Silicon Valley because that is where the talent pool is.”
This new law, which would go into effect on January 1, 2026 retroactively if it passes the vote in November this year, imposes a flat 5% tax on people with a net worth greater than $1 billion to fund health programs. Considering his Jensen Huang net worth, we are talking about a fiscal bite more than 8 billion dollars.
Jensen Huang’s position is rare review insofar as it goes against the trend of many other technology magnates, who have packed their bags to avoid tax burdens. But NVIDIA CEO is not alone: There are other millionaires who are favorable to paying taxes. Of course, they are a minority.
Without going any further, one of the most famous defenders is Warren Buffet, who almost 15 years ago proposed the ‘Buffet rule’ arguing that it is unfair that he pays a lower percentage of taxes than his secretary. Bill Gates has also repeated a few times to raise taxes on the rich and increase the tax burden on capital gains and inheritances.
Incredible as it may seem, ardent defender of capitalism Mark Cuban has advocated paying taxes as “the most patriotic thing you can do.” And speaking of patriotism, there is even an organization known as “Patriotic Millionaires” where the Disney heiress or the philanthropist George Soros ask that their taxes be raised. By the way, the current chairman of the board is Morris Pearl, former CEO of Blackrock.
The budding law is the new “well, I’m going to Andorra”
As we mentioned in the intro, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have already migrated T-Rex LLC to Delaware, according to Business Insider. Later, Page has acquired a residence in Miami following in the footsteps of Jeff Bezos, who we will talk about later. The Guardian reports the intention of Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel or investor David Sacks to move to other states with a more favorable tax policy such as Texas or Florida.
For the majority of these businessmen, these types of taxes discourage innovation, cause capital flight or directly, they consider that the government wastes money on these types of social welfare concepts.
One of the most critical tycoons with the tax burdens is Elon Musk, who moved his residence from California to Texas due to the tax pressure. For the CEO of SpaceX and Starlink, taxes on millionaires are stupid: instead they should invest in reaching Mars, he declared for the public entity PBS.
Jeff Bezos is much less controversial than Musk on his social networks, but his recent move to Florida (which lacks a state income tax) after several decades in Washington has been interpreted as a measure to escape taxes. Ken Griffin, founder of the Citadel financial company, has also gone to Miami after criticizing the tax policies and security of Chicago (Illinois), his previous residence. Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, who is a major donor to the Democratic cause, has recently spoken out against this California tax, arguing that it is poorly designed and harmful to innovation.
In WorldOfSoftware | Warren Buffett sold half of his Apple shares. You will now pay taxes equivalent to Spotify’s annual income
In WorldOfSoftware | SpaceX is on track to have more money than NASA. He has achieved this, in part, because he does not pay taxes
Cover | NVIDIA
