Billionaires Spielberg, Zuckerberg look outside of California amid wealth-tax proposal

California could lose two of its most famous residents and generous political donors.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg recently moved to New York and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg plans to buy a new property in Florida, sparking speculation about whether their decisions are linked to a proposed new tax on California billionaires to fund health care for the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Although a handful of prominent conservatives who have left California have loudly blamed their departure on the controversial wealth tax measure, as well as the state’s liberal methods and what they describe as burdensome business regulations, neither Zuckerberg nor Spielberg have given any indication that the tax proposal is the reason for their decision.

A spokesman for Spielberg, who has owned homes on the East and West coasts since at least the mid-1990s, said the only motivation for Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, to decamp to Manhattan was to be near family.

“Steven’s move to the East Coast is both long planned and driven solely by his and Kate Capshaw’s desire to be closer to their New York-based children and grandchildren,” said Terry Press, a spokesperson for the prodigious filmmaker. She declined to answer questions about her position on the proposed ballot measure.

Director Steven Spielberg presents President Bill Clinton with the Ambassadors for Humanity Award at the 5th Annual Ambassadors for Humanity Dinner honoring former President Bill Clinton in support of Holocaust survivors Visual History Foundation, held at the Universal Studios Amblin Theater on February 17, 2005 in Los Angeles, California.

(Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

On January 1, Spielberg and Capshaw officially became residents of New York, moving into the historic San Remo Co-op on Central Park West. The historic building is among the most exclusive in Manhattan, having housed Bono, Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, Tiger Woods and many other celebrities. The same day, Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment opened an office in New York.

Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, are considering buying a $200 million waterfront mansion in South Florida, The Wall Street Journal first reported this month. The property is located on Indian Creek in Miami, a gated barrier island that is an alcove of the wealthy and influential, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.

Representatives for Zuckerberg declined to comment.

The billionaires’ moves have raised eyebrows because they come as supporters of a proposed 5 percent flat tax on California billionaires’ assets and trusts gather signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot. Led by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, they must collect signatures from nearly 875,000 registered voters and submit them to county election officials by June 24.

If approved, the tax would raise about $100 billion, much of which would be used to fund health services, as well as some education programs. Critics say it would drive the wealthy and their businesses out of the state. On December 31, venture capitalist David Sacks announced he was opening an office in Austin, Texas, the same day PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel announced his company had opened a new office in Miami.

The proposed ballot measure, if it qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters, would apply to Californians who reside in the state starting in 2026. But the residency requirements are unclear. Among the factors considered by the state’s Franchise Tax Board are where a person is registered to vote, the location of their primary residence, the time they spend in California, where their driver’s license was issued and their car registered, where their spouse and children live, the location of their doctors, dentists, accountants and lawyers, and their “social connections,” such as the location of their place of worship or county club.

It’s unclear whether the proposal will make it onto the November ballot and, if so, whether voters will approve it. However, a mass exodus of a number of billionaires from the state – more than 200 people – would still have a notable effect on state revenue. The volatility of the state budget is due to its heavy reliance on taxes paid by the state’s wealthiest residents, including capital gains levies and stock-based compensation.

“The highest-income Californians pay the largest share of the state’s personal income tax,” according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2026-27 budget summary, released in January. “The large share of the personal income tax – by far the largest source of state General Fund revenue – paid by a small percentage of taxpayers increases the difficulty of forecasting personal income tax revenues.”

That reliance on wealthy Californians is one reason the proposed tax on billionaires has created a schism among Democrats and is a source of contention in the 2026 gubernatorial race to replace Newsom, who cannot seek another term and is mulling a presidential bid. He opposes the proposal; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) campaigned for the plan Wednesday night at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.

“I not only support what they’re trying to do in California, but we’re going to introduce a wealth tax for the entire country. We have to deal with the greed, the extraordinary greed of the billionaire class,” Sanders told reporters on February 11.

Both Zuckerberg and Spielberg are prolific political donors, although fully accounting for their contributions to candidates, campaigns and other entities is difficult due to the manner in which they or their affiliates donate to them as well as the intricacies of campaign finance reporting.

Hollywood legend Spielberg, 79, is worth more than $7 billion, according to Forbes. He and his wife have donated almost universally to Democratic candidates and causes, according to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit tracker of federal campaign contributions, and the California secretary of state’s office.

The prolific filmmaker, acclaimed for such films as “Schindler’s List,” “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park” and the “Indiana Jones” trilogy, was born in Ohio and lived with his family in several states before moving to California. He attended Cal State Long Beach, but dropped out after Universal Studios gave him a contract to direct television shows.

Zuckerberg, 41, started Facebook while he was a student and his fortune stands at more than $219 billion, making him one of the richest people in the world, according to Forbes.

His largest personal federal political donation appears to be $1 million to FWD.us, a group focused on criminal justice and immigration reform nationwide, according to Open Secrets.

Zuckerberg, who is currently registered as a Democrat in Santa Clara County, has donated to politicians across the partisan spectrum, including Democrats such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Republicans such as President Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he ran for the White House, and Chris Christie during his New Jersey gubernatorial campaign.

The two men’s personal donations do not include their other effects on campaign finance: Spielberg helped countless Democratic politicians raise money in Hollywood; Zuckerberg’s company made other contributions. Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee in December 2024. Zuckerberg later attended the president’s swearing-in at the US Capitol rotunda.

Zuckerberg, born in White Plains, New York, created an early prototype of Facebook while studying at Harvard University and dropped out to move to Silicon Valley to complete the social media platform, as depicted in the award-winning film “The Social Network.”

He still owns several properties in California and elsewhere, including a huge, controversial compound on Kauai that includes two mansions, dozens of rooms, several other buildings and recreational spaces — and an underground bunker with a metal door filled with concrete, according to a 2023 investigation by Wired. The cost of land acquisition and construction would have exceeded $300 million.

Meta is based in Menlo Park, California, although it has been incorporated in Delaware since Facebook’s founding in 2004.

Times staff writer Queenie Wong contributed to this report.