The war over California’s proposed ‘Billionaire’s Tax’ is getting weird. This week, amid ongoing outrage from the tech elite over the much-maligned bill, it became apparent 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 an agonized tagline: “It’s popular to vilify billionaires. It’s expensive to lose them.”
The immediate reaction was disbelief and most people assumed the site was some kind of bizarre hoax. “it’s a joke/satire right?” one social media user wrote not long after the news circulated. Now, however, the apparent organizer behind the event has revealed that the march definitely isnot a joke and that it is scheduled to take place next Saturday.
The San Francisco Examiner first reported that the event’s organizer had been revealed as Derik Kaufmann, the founder of AI startup RunRL, who previously participated in Y Combinator’s accelerator program. Kaufmann told the Examiner that the event was not funded or organized by any outside group, no major associations or corporations — just him.
In a conversation with TechCrunch, Kaufmann — who also told the Examiner he was no longer involved with RunRL — confirmed that the impetus for the upcoming rally was California’s proposed wealth tax, which the tech founder said he believed would be “pretty damaging to the tech economy.”
The policy in question, the Billionaire Tax Act, was introduced last year and would require Californians worth over $1 billion to pay a one-time tax of 5% of their total wealth. The legislation, which is backed by the state’s health care union SEIU (Service Employees International Union), could pay for essential public services and help the state offset recent federal funding cuts, according to some experts. Nevertheless, the policy has drawn loud protests from some of the tech industry’s most prominent figures, many of whom have either threatened to leave California or have already left. It has also led to a monsoon of lobbying in the California legislature in an effort to defeat the bill.
When asked why he opposed the legislation, Kaufmann expressed concern about how the bill could affect the Silicon Valley startup economy. “This tax in particular is fatally flawed,” he said. “It hits startup founders whose wealth is only on paper. They would be forced to liquidate shares on potentially unfavorable terms, incur capital gains taxes and relinquish control. Not to mention the difficulty of valuing private companies.”
“Many founders would be hit with wildly disproportionate tax bills,” Kaufmann continued. “Additionally, there is no precedent for this kind of comprehensive wealth tax in the US. Sweden eliminated theirs 20 years ago to prevent capital flight and encourage entrepreneurship and now has 50% more billionaires per capital than the US.”
Techcrunch event
Boston, MA
|
23 June 2026
Online conversation about Kaufmann’s planned event has continued to alternate between disbelief and ridicule. “I can’t imagine billionaires marching in the streets,” one social media user said of the event.
That person would probably be right.
Kaufmann told TC that so far he is not aware of any actual billionaires planning to attend the march that has been organized in their honor. Kaufmann said the event will likely include “a few dozen attendees,” though he stressed he really isn’t sure how many people would show up.
The ongoing outrage over the proposed tax is kind of funny since it’s already been known for a while that the legislation has almost no chance of passing. That’s because California Governor Gavin Newsom has already stated that if the bill somehow passes, he would veto it.