Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) (GOOGL) co-founder Sergey Brin is apparently done with California, at least from a corporate paperwork perspective. According to documents obtained by The New York Times, Brin terminated or moved 15 California limited liability companies in the 10 days leading up to Christmas. That's one way to celebrate the holidays.

Nevada Welcomes the Super Rich

Seven of those entities found a new home in Nevada, including the LLCs that manage his superyacht and a private air terminal at San Jose International Airport. Because when you're moving states, you have to think about where to park your yacht's corporate structure.

Brin isn't alone in this exodus. He's joining Larry Page, his fellow Stanford grad and Google co-founder, who left the state last month. Together, the duo has a combined net worth exceeding $500 billion. That's a lot of tax revenue walking out the door.

The Great California Exit

The departures are part of what some are calling a broader billionaire flight from California. Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya put some numbers on it, claiming that more than $700 billion in billionaire wealth has left the state in just the past month. "The $2 trillion of California wealth they expected to tax is now down to $1.3 trillion and falling quickly," Palihapitiya wrote on X.

Senior political analyst Marc Joffe highlighted why this matters. While Google's founders were "quietly paying their 13.3% income tax, the SEIU billionaire tax was a step too far." There's a breaking point for everyone, apparently.

The concern revolves around California's potential ballot measure targeting the state's wealthiest residents. David Sacks, now the White House AI and crypto czar in President Donald Trump's administration, and Palantir (PLTR) co-founder Peter Thiel have also announced new offices outside California.

Not Everyone's Leaving

Tech leaders aren't exactly united on this issue. Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang told Bloomberg Television he's "perfectly fine" with the tax. "We chose to live in Silicon Valley and whatever taxes they would like to apply, so be it," Huang said. That's either principle or confidence that his accountants have it handled.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman took a different angle, calling the proposal badly designed in so many ways. Not a ringing endorsement, but at least he's engaging with the policy rather than just moving to Nevada.

The situation highlights a fundamental tension: California wants to fund ambitious programs by taxing its wealthiest residents, but those residents have the resources to simply relocate their wealth elsewhere. Whether this trend continues may depend on whether that ballot measure actually passes.