Some of Silicon Valley’s ultrawealthy have been in a financial frenzy in recent weeks over how to protect their assets from a proposed California ballot measure that would tax their billions.
Now comes the next, more muscular phase: trying to beat the proposal, which supporters are trying to place on the ballot in November.
The first seven-figure political donation that can be used to defeat the so-called billionaires tax became public on Friday: Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and chairman of Palantir, donated $3 million to a committee opposing the proposed initiative, according to a new disclosure.
The contribution, made on Dec. 29, went to Californians Against Higher Taxes, a committee run by a state business lobby, the California Business Roundtable. It is expected to be the first of several major contributions in 2026 from Silicon Valley leaders who hope to defeat the proposed wealth tax and other tax proposals, according to people involved in the conversations.
Mr. Thiel’s donation is not specifically earmarked for the wealth tax measure, but it will help the California Business Roundtable achieve its goals. The lobby group expects to be a lead backer of a major campaign to beat the tax. Some opponents of the wealth tax estimate that more than $75 million will be spent to try to defeat it.
“I can tell you, unequivocally, we are casting a broad net to donors all over the state — he’s one of hundreds we have,” said Rob Lapsley, the president of the lobby group, of Mr. Thiel. Mr. Lapsley said he had been working the phones to wage a “huge effort” with business leaders to defeat the billionaires tax and a second local tax proposal.
The California initiative was put forward by a state health care union to offset federal budget cuts that threaten California’s health care system. It calls for California residents worth more than $1 billion to be taxed the equivalent of 5 percent of their assets, and would apply retroactively to anyone who lived in the state as of Jan. 1.
First, though, it needs to obtain nearly 900,000 signatures to get on the state ballot in November. The measure is opposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who has called it bad policy and argued that it would lead billionaires to move out of state.
Mr. Thiel’s $3 million donation is his largest disclosed political check since the 2022 midterm election cycle, when he spent more than $35 million to back candidates aligned with the Make America Great Again movement, including the Ohio Senate race of JD Vance.
Mr. Thiel has been hot and cold in his political engagement over the years. A prominent backer of President Trump’s first campaign, he rebuffed Mr. Trump’s request for a large donation early in the 2024 race but later cut a private check to a pro-Trump legal group, The New York Times has reported.
A spokesman for Mr. Thiel did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Thiel, who has a home and businesses in Los Angeles, was among an early group of billionaires to move to cut ties with the Golden State, in large part because of the proposed measure. His family investment firm, Thiel Capital, announced it was an opening in office in Miami at the end of last year. The form disclosing his donation to the anti-tax group states that he is based in Florida.
Several billionaires have been debating among themselves the best political strategy for beating the tax initiative.
Some wealthy donors have been commissioning polls to assess public opinion on the proposed ballot measure. Mike Murphy, a California Republican strategist who is in touch with several major donors, said he was in the field on behalf of several interested parties with a poll to assess how the measure stood.
One group of donors, including the investor Ron Conway, is raising money for a committee that seeks to beat the tax proposal head-on in November around a different idea commonly employed in California: sponsoring its own rival ballot initiatives, also on taxes, in an effort to confuse voters.
Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, has also been engaged in recent conversations about ways to defeat the billionaires proposal, according to two people briefed on the matter. Mr. Brin has been among the tech billionaires who took steps to cut ties with California ahead of the Jan. 1 deadline.
Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the world.
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