Mystery Group Plans 'March for Billionaires' at City Hall

Anonymous organizers plan to march on Saturday in defense of billionaires, as Silicon Valley executives rage against California’s proposed wealth tax.

The “March for Billionaires” will take place on Saturday. The group’s sparse website, created Jan. 29, offers little detail about who’s behind the effort.

“Vilifying billionaires is popular. Losing them is expensive,” reads the site, which links to BlueSky and X accounts under the handle @ProBillionaires.

The organizers claim the effort is genuine, not satire. “We sincerely believe what we’re saying,” they wrote in a message. “We think most American billionaires have had greatly positive societal impacts, directly and indirectly. We support wealth creation and oppose rent-seeking/extraction, anticompetitive practices, and regulatory capture.”

They said they’re staying anonymous due to backlash “and some threats” online, but deny taking money from billionaires or “outside groups.”

The march comes as tech leaders fight the “Billionaire Tax Act” proposed by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. The measure would impose a one-time 5 percent wealth tax on California residents worth more than $1 billion.

SEIU-UHW says the tax would generate about $100 billion to offset “cuts to federal healthcare funding” and affect roughly 200 billionaires. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, California Rep. Ro Khanna, and the Teamsters California union back the measure, though Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes it.

State analysts predict the tax could add “tens of billions of dollars” to California’s budget but might cause ongoing losses of “hundreds of millions of dollars or more per year” if billionaires leave the state.

Silicon Valley executives are already fleeing. Crypto czar David Sacks reportedly left for Texas, calling the measure “asset seizure.” Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan said the tax would “wholesale destroy business creation” in the state.

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, worth $3.6 billion, said he could be “screwed for life” and forced to “sell huge chunks” of his stock.

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have moved dozens of business entities outside California. Brin gave $20 million to a political action committee that may fight the tax, while venture capitalist Peter Thiel contributed $3 million to similar efforts.

The march organizers’ website calls billionaires “value creators” who are “building, not taking.” It lists billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Page and Brin, Taylor Swift, Roger Federer, and James Dyson, who the site says “invented the bagless vacuum cleaner after 5,127 prototypes.”

“These billionaires didn’t steal from you,” the site reads. “They created new products, new services, new possibilities that millions of people freely chose.”

The march opposes recent “People Over Billionaires” protests that wound through Pacific Heights, where protesters chanted: “Let’s stop these money grabbing maniacs from wrecking our world!”

Saturday’s pro-billionaire march will take the opposite message to the same wealthy neighborhood.