The Explosion of Corporate Billionaire Money in California Politics

Introduction

In the mere 16 months since Trump’s reelection, the collective wealth of California’s 225 billionaires has grown by $570.8 billion, or 36.2%.⁠¹ Many of these billionaires are now weaponizing those gains against California’s working families, as shown by a dramatic uptick in their political spending in support of a pro-corporate and big-tech agenda that is often explicitly opposed to consumer protections, worker organization and progressive taxation.

During this same period, the combination of Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires and unlawful tariffs has saddled 80% of California residents–four out of five people–with an average increase of $880 in higher costs this year.⁠²

While California’s billionaires have seen their wealth exponentially increase, and California’s working families have experienced greater economic hardships - two facts that are arguably quite related - the state has also seen a dramatic increase in political spending by this billionaire class. This report reveals that the top four billionaire political spenders, together with their affiliated corporations, have contributed $331 million so far this election cycle, representing a 147% increase over spending in the entire 2023-2024 election cycle - and there is still more than three months to go.⁠⁵⁶ One of them, Sergey Brin, together with contributions by his company Google, increased political spending 3,000% from the previous 2023-24 election cycle!

In many ways, the timing does not seem surprising. As AI, data centers and Crypto currencies expand, so do efforts by local and state governments to put in place regulations geared towards protecting consumers. As the federal administration slashes programs and funding that help working families survive, community advocates, local government and the state of California look to close corporate tax loopholes and increase taxes on wealth to help fund basic needs like child care, healthcare and food assistance. The billionaires are pushing back – to prevent regulations that may impact the activities of their business ventures and block progressive tax measures that ask them to pay their fair share.

This report is an analysis of the top 15 California billionaires⁠³ and big corporations infusing money into politics this midterm and the footprint they have on races in California. We examine their giving, the giving of their affiliated corporations and the web of federal and state political action committees created to consolidate resources and influence “top of ticket” federal and statewide races and “down ballot” California State Assembly and Senate contests.

Key Takeaways

• Among California's 225 billionaires, the top 15 individual billionaire donors have contributed a combined $336 million so far this midterm cycle across federal and California elections.⁠⁴
• When you combine the individual spending of California’s top four billionaire political spenders - Sergey Brin, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and Chris Larsen - and their corporate political spending in federal and California elections, together they have given $331 million this cycle, representing a 147% increase over their spending in the entire 2023-24 election cycle.
  • Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, dwarfed every other billionaire in state-level contributions - giving $86 million to a host of state PACs,⁠⁵ and Brin ranks among the top 5 political spenders in the country.⁠⁶ Google’s corporate political giving so far has been $8.7 million. This is a 3,000% increase from the previous 2023-24 election cycle where Google made $2.5 million in contributions, and Brin made no political contributions.
  • Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are Silicon Valley venture capital investors and are among the largest political spenders in the country. Their individual giving, when combined with contributions from their investment firms Andreessen Horowitz and a16z, brings the combined total to $143 million.⁠⁷ This is an 80% increase in spending over the 2023-24 election cycle.
  • Chris Larsen, chairperson for the crypto company Ripple Labs, is the second largest contributor to state elections, having given over $25 million in contributions. When his individual contributions are added to contributions from Ripple, the combined footprint of Larsen and Ripple is up to $92.9 million. This is a 79% increase in the combined political spending by Larsen and Ripple over the 2023-2024 spending. However, Larsen’s total individual giving for local, state, and federal elections saw an even greater increase - from $2.9 million in the 2023-24 cycle to $36 million this cycle.
• In the highest spending State Assembly Race, AD 67 (Orange & Los Angeles Counties), $9.9 million was spent against labor leader and community backed candidate Ada Briceño, 6.6 times more than the $1.5 million spent to support her. The amount of money spent this primary was 3 times more than the last contested race in 2022.
• An analysis of twenty corporate-backed California State Political Action Committee’s (PAC’s) receiving significant billionaire and corporate contributions showed the PAC’s already raised a collective $289 million this year, dwarfing the total spending in the 2024 primary elections.⁠⁸
• In addition to the billionaires’ direct, individual political contribution, the corporations that they are directly affiliated with are also often contributing large sums to the same political PACs, causes, and candidates, compounding the billionaires’ influence.
• A web of major corporate Political Action Committees (PACs) at the state and federal level are receiving millions from California billionaires and big corporations, further amplifying their collective political spending and power of a pro-business agenda.

The 15 Billionaires Seeking to Reshape California

The Top Four, Combined with Corporate Spending

2026 Contributions - Total contributions made by the individual & description of where the money was directed  ·  Affiliated Corporation 2026 Contributions beyond their individual giving.

Top four combined — individual: $209,147,392  ·  affiliated corporate: $122,417,840

Rounding Out the Top 15

2026 Contributions - Total contributions made by the individual & description of where the money was directed

5. Anna & Greg BrockmanOpenAI (President)$50,000,000

   Leading the Future and MAGA Inc in federal contributions

6. Michael MoritzSequoia Capital (Chairperson)$16,133,400

   $13 million in state level, including to Building a Better California, California Back to Basics, and other PACs $2.9 million in contributions in San Francisco

7. John Doerr IIIGoogle (Director)$12,234,100

   $11 million in state level - Building a Better California, California Back to Basics, and $1.2 million in federal contributions

8. Reed HastingsNetflix (Co-founder)$11,009,100

   $7.1 million in state level contributions to California Back to Basics, Charter Public Schools Political Action Committee, and to candidates and other PACs $3.9 million in federal contributions

9. Patrick CollisonStripe (CEO)$8,762,000

   $8.5 million in state level contributions to Building a Better California and California Back to Basics

10. Tim DraperDraper Associates (Venture Capital)$6,388,200

    $5.1 million in state level contributions to Grow California, Hilton for Governor $1.2 million in federal contributions, including $1 million to MAGA Inc

11. Peter ThielPalantir (Chair) Founder’s Fund$6,201,400

    $3 million to California Business Roundtable $3.2 million to federal PACs and candidates

12. Eric SchmidtGoogle (CEO)$5,089,100

    Building a Better California ($3M), California Business Roundtable ($1.5M)

13. Ron ConwaySV Angel (Founder)$5,854,402

    All federal level contributions, including Think Big

14. Stewart ResnickThe Wonderful Company (President)$3,157,520

    $2.8 million in state level contributions, including $2.5 million to Building a Better California

15. Tony XuDoorDash (CEO)$2,539,200

    $2.2 million in state level contributions, including $2 million to Building a Better California

The 15 billionaires’ individual donations combined: $336 million

California's Biggest Spenders

Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google who is still on the board of directors and is a controlling shareholder,⁠¹¹ dwarfed every other billionaire in state-level contributions - contributing $86 million to a host of PACs in the state.⁠¹² While Brin did not contribute directly to federal candidates in California or any of the major AI federal PACs, he has contributed $443,000 this cycle to the Republican National Committee. Brin’s largest contribution in the state was directed towards his Building a Better California committee - $82 million - that is laser focused on defeating the Billionaire Ballot measure through direct opposition and a series of counter-ballot measures to undercut the initiative.

These propositions that are on the ballot to undermine the Billionaire tax are funded through various committees linked to Building a Better California. The two measures that qualified for the ballot would require state audits of programs funded by new taxes and would prevent new taxes on personal property to offset the wealth tax.

Brin also contributed $500,000 to defeat the Overpaid CEO Tax ballot measure in San Francisco. Brin fled the state at the end of last year, moving his residence to a $42 million estate on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe ahead of the deadline that would qualify him for the California billionaire tax should it pass in November.⁠¹³

Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz - the co-founders of one of the most prominent venture capital funds in Silicon Valley and largest backers of AI, crypto, bio-tech and defense tech - are currently two of the largest donors in the country.⁠¹⁴ Their individual giving, when combined with contributions from their investment firms Andreessen Horowitz and a16z, is a combined $143 million to date during the 2025-26 election cycle. Individually Andreessen and Horowitz rank as the second and third largest individual California billionaire political spenders.

Chris Larsen, chairperson for the crypto company Ripple, has given $36 million in local, state and federal elections. Adding in contributions directly from Ripple ups his combined footprint to $92.9 million, making Larsen among the largest political donors in the country. Ripple’s contributions include $6 million to California PACs and $49.6 million in giving to a series of federal PACs laser focused on a Crypto and AI-friendly legislative agenda at the federal level.

Ripple also donated a significant amount of money, $4.9 million in digital tokens, to Trump's inauguration committee, making it the second-largest contributor to that event.⁠¹⁵ Following its inauguration donation, Ripple succeeded in settling the lawsuit filed against it by the U.S. government’s Securities and Exchange Commission for a $125 million fine — a fraction of the $2 billion the SEC had sought.⁠¹⁶

Chris Larsen has always had a significant civic and political footprint. He was a major contributor to Kamala Harris in 2024, and he and his wife have given $120 million through the Lam-Larsen Climate Change Foundation.⁠¹⁷ This cycle, Larsen and Ripple’s political giving has most often been towards more moderate, business-friendly Democrats. His largest endeavor in the state - the Grow California PAC - is focused on trying to “empower business-friendly Democrats and Republicans” who can serve as a “counterforce to the labor movement” according to one of its founders ⁠¹⁸ - joining forces with other tech and corporate contributors in state legislative races to defeat labor and community-backed candidates.

Larsen’s San Francisco Footprint. Chris Larsen has poured $2.9 million alone into the San Francisco Municipal elections. The defeat of San Francisco Measure D, the Overpaid Executive Tax, was a key priority for Larsen in the June primary elections. The measure would have increased taxes on companies whose CEO’s make 100 times more than the median worker and would have generated $200-300 million in revenue for the city. Larsen was the largest individual donor to the campaign against the measure, contributing $700,000 to the Yes on C, No on D campaign directly, and another $500,000 to a committee, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, that also gave $700,000 to the Yes on C, No on D campaign.⁠¹⁹

“We’ve got to start fighting on par with the unions when they propose these absolutely stupid propositions like this crazy CEO tax.”⁠²⁰ - Chris Larsen

The Web of Corporate & Billionaire-Backed PACs

The billionaires and corporations have aligned their spending and, in many cases, consolidated their power across industries this cycle - raising and spending at extreme levels heading into the June 2026 primaries. So far, corporate-backed PACs have accumulated a significant war chest, spending across state legislative and federal congressional races.

California's Billionaire & Corporate State PACs

State - Data pulled from California Secretary of State (as of June 2026)

California’s Corporate PACs

California’s billionaires and corporations have raised a collective $289 million into the state PACs we analyzed, with five more months of campaigning to go. The PACs we selected either received significant contributions from the top billionaires or were founded by one of those billionaires or an affiliated corporation, or is a PAC with significant spending backed by major corporation or industry associations in the state.

While we don’t have a comparable analysis for 2024, according to a Cal Matters report, total spending by corporate and labor-funded committees was $46.5 million during the 2024 primary, putting the $289 million raised so far this year significantly higher.⁠²¹

A birdseye view of contributors to these PACs shows broad-sweeping alignment between the major corporate actors in the state - from more “traditional” corporate players like energy & utilities, oil & gas, and the real estate industry including the California Apartment Association and the realtors, to large individual billionaire donors and the major tech industry players. This encompasses companies like AirBnB and Uber who have been prominent players in recent election cycles, to include now Big Tech such as Meta, Google, Ripple, Coinbase and Palantir.

Together they have created a constellation of intersecting PACs that are shaping ballot measures and California legislative races, doubling down to either directly support moderate, corporate-friendly candidates or infuse money into independent expenditures campaigns for their candidates and against their opposition.

Here is a look at the top California PACs we analyzed - those PACs that had some of the largest political spending footprint and had the backing of our identified top billionaires, their affiliated corporations or were backed by significant contributions from numerous major corporations or industry associations.

The California Business Roundtable & the Chamber

The California Business Roundtable, which is made up of CEOs and senior executives from the state’s largest employers, states that its Issues PAC is “the most powerful statewide business voice at the ballot box advocating for pro-business policies that align with our vision for economic growth and prosperity in the state.” ⁠²² The PAC has raised over $11 million this election cycle. More than half of its financial support has come from billionaires.⁠²³

The California Business Roundtable Issues PAC has contributed $9.8 million to the Californians to Restore Local Taxpayers' Right to Vote on Taxes a committee sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association,⁠²⁴ which is the committee behind the Save Prop 13 Initiative that would have effectively invalidated Los Angeles’ breakthrough “mansion tax” passed by voters in 2023 to fund desperately needed affordable housing.⁠²⁵ The measure was pulled last minute ahead of the ballot deadline. The committee is currently in support of Prop 43, which is the compromise bill that will raise the threshold for citizen-driven special tax ballot initiatives to pass from a simple majority to two-thirds, making it harder to impose or increase taxes.

The largest donor to the Issues PAC was Palantir co-founder and Chairperson, Peter Thiel, who contributed $3 million to fight back against the Billionaire Tax. Thiel shifted his residency at the end of last year to avoid the billionaire tax should the ballot measure pass.

The largest billionaire donors to the PAC are:

• Peter Thiel - $3 million
• Eric Schmidt - $1.5 million
• Chris Larsen - $750,000
• John Hering - $500,000
• Douglas Leone and Patricia Perkins - Leone - $500,000
• Diego Berdakin - $100,000
• James Siminoff - $100,000

The California Chamber of Commerce’s JobsPAC, is one of the state’s largest players and has spent $21 million this cycle with the most diverse pool of industry and billionaire contributors. The Chamber’s JobsPAC also spent $15.2 million towards the California is Not For Sale committee opposing Tom Steyer for Governor. Some of the top donors to the JobsPAC committee included PG&E, which gave $2.4 million, Google’s Sergey Brin who gave $2 million, and Meta, which also gave $2 million.

The largest donors to the PAC include:

• PG&E - $2.4 million
• Sempra Energy - $2.2 million
• Sergey Brin, billionaire and co-founder of Google - $2 million
• Meta - $2 million
• California Apartment Association - $890,000
• Airbnb - $500,000
• Uber - $500,000
• DaVita - $250,000
• Google - $250,000

Building a Better California

Building a Better California has raised $118 million, all of it from billionaires.

Google co-founder and director Sergey Brin, who is the third richest person in the U.S. with a net worth of $237 billion, according to Forbes,⁠²⁶ has contributed $82 million to the Building a Better California PAC, which was set up to counter the proposed Billionaire Tax. The PAC is working to get two of its own initiatives on the November ballot.⁠²⁷ One of the initiatives would bar new taxes on the types of financial assets that the billionaire tax is targeting. The other initiative contains a provision about how tax revenue can be spent that is in direct conflict with the wealth tax, and which could override that tax. If voters approve competing measures on the same subject, the one with more “yes” votes wins.⁠²⁸

Building a Better California — Donors

Meta & Google

Meta is launching its largest push to back political candidates in the company’s history including, according to Politico, deepening its political presence in California. Meta launched its own super PAC last year, Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (Meta) California, loading it with $20 million. The PAC has stated that it would support candidates who favor “light-touch AI rules.”⁠²⁹ This came on the heels of a massive investment of $45 million⁠³⁰ in September of 2025 into a new non-federal PAC, American Technology Excellence Project. The historical bipartisan giving by the company has shifted to a much more partisan landscape with the company also giving $1 million to the Trump inauguration.

Meta also launched a partnership with Google in California - the California Leads PAC has raised $10 million this election cycle - $5 million from Google and $5 million from Meta - which is solely focused on California legislative races and has aligned its contributions this cycle largely with the other major tech-backed PACs. SV Angel Management (Ron Conway) also contributed to the PAC giving $100,000.

Overall Google has made $6.6 million in contributions in the state - while its affiliate executives Sergey Brin and John Doerr have contributed $86 million and $12 million respectively.

Grow California

The Grow California PAC raised $20 million, all of it from two billionaires - Chris Larsen from the crypto company Ripple ($15 million) and venture capital investor Tim Draper ($5 million), who is also a major figure in the crypto world and a libertarian who has backed prior ballot measures proposing to split California into multiple states. Larsen has publicly committed to contributing a total of $30 million to the PAC which is focused on trying to “empower business-friendly Democrats and Republicans who can serve as what one of its founders called a ‘counterforce’ to the labor movement.” ⁠³¹

Grow California independent expenditures in 2026 legislative races. Source: campaign finance filings.

California Billionaire Footprint on the Federal PACs

Federal

Federal Corporate PACs

At the federal level, California’s fifteen biggest political spending billionaires and their affiliated corporations contributed $188 million to federal PACs. The leading federal PACs are being driven largely by tech moguls and their affiliated corporations.

These billionaires are weaving together a web of PACs that allow them to give across the aisle. They are funding business friendly Republicans and Democrats committed to supporting crypto, AI and a business friendly environment under the guise of expenditures to support safer, more progressive Democrats who they would like to win the support of in the future, should Congress switch hands in 2027. This structure of giving has allowed corporations and billionaires to fill the coffers of elected officials with some measured distance between individual giving and corporate giving on both sides of the aisle.

Key Federal PACs with a Footprint in California

Fairshake

Fairshake PAC is the cryptocurrency industry’s most prominent political action committee, formed to both aid crypto allied candidates and punish candidates who will not back a crypto-friendly agenda. The PAC has built a significant warchest and is currently the largest corporate-backed PAC in the country. The goal is to build crypto as a monetary alternative to current monetary systems with a parallel financial system, supporting legislation that “would divvy up oversight of [crypto] between market regulators.”⁠³²

“We are building an aggressive, targeted strategy for next year to ensure that pro-crypto voices are heard in key races across the country,” Fairshake spokesperson said in July 2025.⁠³³

Fairshake and its two affiliated PACs — Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress — have raised $109 million since Election Day in 2024 and $52 million during just the first half of 2026. Protect Progress is Fairshake’s Democratic-leaning PAC, and Defend American Jobs is its Republican leaning arm.

Fairshakes’s donors include major California players:

- Marc Andreessen gave $11.9 million
- Ben Horowitz gave $11.9 million
- Ripple Labs gave $48 million
- Coinbase gave $33.9 million

Leading the Future

A group of Silicon Valley billionaires founded the Leading the Future super PAC to support candidates from both parties who shared the billionaires’ vision of a national AI regulatory framework, rather than state-by-state sets of laws. The group’s news release announcing the launch of the fund said, “With more than $100 million in initial funding already committed, LTF is the first comprehensive, bipartisan effort by the AI industry to organize political support and elect pro-Innovation candidates at scale.”

- Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of the venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz each gave $25 million .
- Their firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, gave $50 million to the PAC
- Greg Brockman, co-founder of OpenAI, and his wife Anna gave a total of $25 million

Leading the Future has two affiliates – its Democratic-focused super PAC, Think Big, and its Republican counterpart, American Mission. Lonsdale Enterprises, the private investment entity owned by billionaire and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, gave $250,000 to the American Mission PAC.

The California Legislative Races

During California's June primary, a set of billionaires and corporate PACs strategically concentrated their independent expenditures in open legislative races, largely backing business-friendly candidates while spending aggressively against labor and community-supported alternatives. Tech companies were the most significant new force, spending at levels far exceeding any previous cycle. In the races they chose, corporate and billionaire-backed candidates outspent their opponents by as much as 6 to 1.⁠³⁴

Here are the state races that were flooded with the most corporate and billionaire-backed money/contributions.

State Assembly District 67

Los Angeles and Orange Counties

Billionaires spent millions in the District 67 race to support Cerritos Councilmember Mark Pulido and defeat UNITE HERE Local 11 co-president Ada Briceno, who is the former head of the Orange County Democratic Party.

Grow California, the PAC founded by crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, spent $2.6 million in independent expenditures supporting Pulido and $1.5 million in independent expenditures opposing Briceno.

California Leads PAC, which received $5 million from both Meta and Google, spent $1.2 million in independent expenditures supporting Pulido.

JobsPAC spent $373,000 opposing Ada Briceno.

State Assembly District 68

Orange County

California Assembly District 68 exemplifies the dramatic shift this cycle in outside spending by corporate and billionaire interests. Outside corporate interests spent 5 times what the first place Democratic candidate David Penaloza spent and 10 times the amount of money second place Democratic candidate Jessie Lopez spent.⁠³⁵

Democratic Santa Ana City Councilmembers Jessie Lopez and David Penaloza are advancing to the November general election;

Grow California, the PAC founded by crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, put over $2 million into the race - $1.1 million in independent expenditures opposing Lopez and $916,000 in independent expenditures supporting Penaloza.

California Leads spent $1.2 million to support Penaloza and JobsPAC spent $114,000.

“This race is about the future of California - whether we answer to corporations and insiders or to the hard-working people we’re elected to serve,” Lopez said.⁠³⁶

State Assembly District 35

Bakersfield

Billionaires put their financial support into electing Bakersfield City Council member Andrae Gonzales and defeating Ana Palacio, an emergency room nurse backed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California. Four times more money was spent to back Gonzales than was spent on Palacio who finished third.

SEIU California backed Palacio, saying “it is time for change” and noted that the establishment leadership “had led us to where we’re at today,” with Bakersfield having “some of the worst outcomes for health, some of the least access to services and some of the worst environmental conditions,” resulting in shortened life expectancy.⁠³⁷

Meta and Google each gave $5 million to the California Leads PAC, which spent $1.6 million in independent expenditures to support Gonzales.

Meta’s PAC Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (META) California spent $350,000 on independent expenditures supporting Gonzales.

JobsPAC spent $342,000 in independent expenditures opposing Ana Palacio.

State Assembly District 12

Marin and Sonoma Counties

Rohnert Park City Council member Jackie Elward and Marin County supervisor Eric Lucan advanced from the June primary to the November general election.

The billionaires are committed to electing Lucan and defeating Elward, who is backed by labor and progressive groups.

Grow California, the PAC founded by crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, poured more than $1 million dollars into the race. The political committee spent over $750,000 running a constant stream of attack ads against Elward and $307,000 on ads in support of Lucan.

Elward said, “They haven’t seen anything yet. They spent a million dollars but they couldn’t stop me, they couldn’t stop our movement.”⁠³⁸

State Assembly District 65

Los Angeles County

Billionaires spent millions as they went all in on their support for Compton Unified School District Board trustee Ayanna Davis and their opposition to Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, the former chair of the California Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus.

Grow California, the PAC founded by crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, spent $1.4 million on independent expenditures supporting Davis and $638,000 opposing Iqbal-Zubair.

Meta and Google each gave $5 million to the California Leads PAC, which spent $1 million in independent expenditures for Davis.

JobsPAC spent $292,000 in independent expenditures opposing Iqbal-Zubair.

See Appendix for additional races

The California State Senate

State Senate District 10

East Bay

Scott Sakakihara is a former Palantir executive. PACs tied to Meta and tech billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper have spent over $2 million supporting his campaign.

Meta’s PAC Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (META) California spent $1.3 million on mailers and digital ads supporting Sakakihara.

Grow California, the PAC founded by crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, spent over $1 million on ads, consulting, and research for Sakakihara. Meta bought mailers and digital ads totaling over $966,000.⁠³⁹

JobsPAC spent $294,000 in independent expenditures opposing another candidate Anne Kepner, an attorney who has represented consumers against large corporations. “My interpretation is, by the millions being spent trying to buy this seat, that I’m perceived as a threat,” Kepner said. “That’s exactly the problem, and the reason I’m running,” she stated, adding “sometimes I think we’re defined by our enemies.”⁠⁴⁰

State Senate District 24

Los Angeles County

Grow California, the PAC founded by crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, spent $2.2 million to defeat West Hollywood City Councilmember John Erickson. Erickson, who received the most votes in the primary, said, “The outcome of this election is a clear example of how dark money cannot buy elections.”⁠⁴¹

JobsPAC spent $1.2 million to beat Dr. Sion Roy. A statewide coalition of labor and Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy groups criticized campaign mailers sent by the PAC as racially charged political attacks. The coalition said the mailers contained… a “racist dog whistle” by depicting Roy in ultra-high contrast imagery intended to darken his skin.⁠⁴²

State Senate District 26

Los Angeles

Grow California, the PAC founded by crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, spent over $1 million to support housing attorney Sara Hernandez.

State Senate District 40

San Diego area

California Leads spent $1.3 million in support of San Marcos City Councilmember Ed Musgrove.

JobsPAC spent $350,000 against businesswoman Kristie Bruce-Lane.

The California Federal Races

By March of 2026, 50 billionaire families had infused half a billion dollars into the midterm elections with the vast majority of those resources going towards Republican candidates and super PACs aligned with the president.⁠⁴³ Nationally, a constellation of largely tech-backed AI and crypto PACs are filtering money to both sides of the political aisle through related PACs in an effort to curry favor with Democratic and Republican candidates in safe seats while pouring in millions to defeat challengers to their agenda and defend or elect potential champions for their billionaire, pro tech agenda. They are engaging most heavily in pivotal seats with a clear eye on controlling Congress.

Congressional District 11

San Francisco County

Independent expenditures opposing Saikat Chakrabarti
Abundant Future: $957,881
Donors to Scott Wiener:
Chris Larsen: $7,000
Garry Tan: $3,500
Sam Altman: $3,300 — note: only D donation this cycle

Congressional District 22

Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera Tulare County

Donors to David Valadao
Nicole Luckey (wife of Anduril’s Palmer Luckey): $7,000
Laura Arnold: $3,500
Harlan Crow: $3,500
Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone): $3,500
Space Exploration Tech Corp Pac: $10,000
Google Netpac: $5,000
Amazon PAC: $2,500

Congressional District 23

Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino County

Donors to Jay Obernolte
Ben Horowitz: $7,000
Marc Andreessen: $7,000
Alex Karp: $3,500
Independent expenditures supporting Jay Obernolte
American Mission: $259,682

Congressional District 48

Riverside, San Diego County

Donors to Darrell Issa (*announced retirement - no longer running for office)
Elon Musk: $6,600
Space Exploration Technologies Corp PAC: $10,000
Google Netpac: $5,000
Amazon PAC: $5,000
Meta Platforms, Inc PAC: $2,500
Donors to Jim Desmond
Palmer Luckey (Anduril): $3,500
Independent expenditures supporting Ammar Campa-Najjar
Serving CA: $291,388
Independent expenditures opposing Marni von Wilpert
Serving CA: $653,454

Conclusion

This election cycle has seen an unprecedented amount of resources flowing into California state elections. According to one report, corporations have spent $517 million to influence federal elections nationally, a 12% increase over the $461 million total spending of corporations in the entire 2024 election cycle.⁠⁴⁴

Major billionaires like Google cofounder Sergey Brin, who had not made a single contribution since 2010 in California state elections, has already contributed over $86 million in California this cycle. While California’s billionaires have claimed that part of what has spurred their giving is to push back against specific tax measures aimed at CEO and billionaire wealth in the state, this unprecedented giving is actually part of a national trend of mega-donors throwing their resources into congressional and state-races during an administration under which they have openly been able to buy power and advance a pro-billionaire and pro-business agenda.

In California, attempts by billionaires and corporations to purchase power at our legislature transcends party affiliation, with contributors seeking to promote more moderate, business friendly Democrats in addition to Republican candidates. Tech billionaires are joining forces with traditional corporate players in the state, such as oil and gas, the utilities and energy and the real estate industry and apartment association and together have made it very clear that they will continue to push back against any state and local regulations to levy taxes on wealth and to curb their freedom to do business, including regulations that protect communities, tenants, workers and our children.

The tech moguls are flooding money into these elections in California and across the country, paving a path towards unfettered AI and crypto industries at the federal level, while seeking to solidify a California state legislature that will not undercut new federal rules around crypto (the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts) and will scale back existing regulation on AI and push for the industry’s expansion.

The cost to communities will mean the proliferation of data centers at the cost of utility affordability, the climate, water and sustainability, with no safeguards for workers and our children. This will also mean exponential and unregulated accumulation of wealth that will impact affordability at the state level and undermine our public services through corporate and billionaire tax breaks.

Methodology

This research was conducted to better understand the political footprint of California's most politically active billionaire donors during the 2025–2026 election cycle, through the June 2, 2026 primary. Our goal was to capture their spending across state and federal candidate races and ballot measures in California.

Because several prominent San Francisco ballot measures directly impact billionaires and corporations — most notably the "Overpaid CEO" tax — we also chose to include political contributions made in the June 2 San Francisco municipal elections. That data was pulled from the San Francisco Ethics Commission website.

Across all of these races, our analysis captures two layers of giving: direct contributions to candidates or ballot measures, and contributions to political action committees (PACs), including the PACs' own subsequent spending to support or oppose specific candidates or measures.

To arrive at our list of billionaires to highlight, we started broad — identifying the state's largest billionaires and totaling their complete California state-level political contributions during this period using California Secretary of State filings. This produced a narrower and more manageable list from which we pulled each of these billionaires' federal political contributions to individual candidates and PACs from Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, aggregating their total federal giving while separately analyzing the portion directed to California-specific races.

The total contribution figures in our billionaire chart reflect three combined categories: all political contributions to candidates or PACs within California; all federal-level giving, including contributions made outside California; and all contributions made in the San Francisco June 2 primary.

We made a few deliberate choices in narrowing the list to the top 15 billionaires guided by our interest in the wealthiest and most politically active billionaires in California — specifically, those who gave to a broad range of races and ballot measure not just giving to their own campaigns or those of family members. We therefore excluded Tom Steyer: his contributions were concentrated on self-funding his own campaign, and he did not advance to the November general election, despite having sought the state's highest office.

Affiliated Corporations

Beyond individual donors, we also examined the political footprint of major corporations affiliated with the billionaires on our list, across state and federal candidate races and ballot measures in California. We define an affiliated corporation as one where the billionaire serves as CEO, Chairperson, or a key C-suite executive; is a Founder; or is a former executive who continues to work inside the company — Sergey Brin, who remains involved at Google, is one example.

We also chose to highlight major California companies that made significant political contributions this cycle even though their executives did not individually make significant contributions of their own. We did not include corporations that made significant contributions nationally but not in California; our focus remained on political spending within the state.

Similar to billionaire totals, the total contribution figures for these corporations include all political contributions to candidates or PACs within California, all federal-level giving including contributions made outside California, and all contributions made in the San Francisco June 2 primary.

Billionaire- and Corporate-Backed PACs

Finally, we identified and analyzed contributions to and from what we call billionaire- and corporate-backed PACs in California – defined in this way if it met one of the following criteria: it received significant contributions from the top billionaires identified in our research; it was founded by one of those billionaires or an affiliated corporation; or it is a PAC wielding significant contributions and spending that is backed by, or was started by, a major corporation or business/industry association in the state.

At the federal level, we had a more narrow threshold, PACs that received contributions in the millions of dollars from the billionaires identified in our research, or that were founded by those billionaires or their affiliated corporations.

For both California and federal PACs, the total-raised figures reflect all money raised by the PAC — not solely contributions from the California billionaire donors or their affiliated corporations. In most cases, however, we separately highlight the specific dollar amount contributed by those billionaires and their affiliated corporations within the broader PAC total.

Specifics on data sources: All state level contribution data is from the California Secretary of State Campaign Finance Power Search as of July 6, 2026.
Federal level contribution data is from the Federal Election Commission Individual Contribution Search.

Appendix 1 — The Ballot Measures

Restricting Local Tax Measures

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association collected enough signatures to place a measure on the November ballot that they call the Save Prop 13 Initiative - but it was pulled at the last minute ahead of the ballot deadline. The measure would have limited local governments’ ability to fund schools, affordable housing, and public services by putting a cap on real estate transfer tax rates and requiring local tax ballot measures to receive approval by two-thirds of voters, rather than the current simple majority of more than 50%,

The California Business Roundtable Issues PAC has contributed $9.8 million to Californians to Restore Local Taxpayers' Right to Vote on Taxes, which is the committee behind the ballot measure, and $771,000 to Protect Prop 13, a project of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

The California Business Roundtable Issues PAC has raised over $11 million this election cycle. Billionaires accounted for at least $6 million of this.

• Peter Thiel ($3 million)
• Eric Schmidt ($1.5 million)
• Chris Larsen ($750,000)
• John Hering ($500,000)
• Douglas Leone and Patricia Perkins-Leone ($500,000)
• James Siminoff ($100,000)
• Diego Berdakin ($100,000)

The Billionaire Tax: Stacking Up Their Money to Protect Their Wealth

Service Employees International Union - United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW)has led the effort for a ballot measure to levy a one-time 5% tax on California residents whose net worth exceeds $1 billion to make up for the deep cuts that the Trump administration has made to Medicaid.

The state’s billionaires have been spending millions of dollars to counter this effort, contributing to the California Business Roundtable, which is leading the effort to defeat the measure, and to two PACs.⁠⁴⁵ The California Business Roundtable has received massive donations from Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel and other billionaires.

Google co-founder and director Sergey Brin, who is the third richest person in the U.S. with a net worth of over $270 billion, according to Forbes, ⁠⁴⁶ has contributed $82 million to the Building a Better California PAC which was set up to counter the proposed Billionaire Tax. The PAC is working to get two of its own initiatives on the November ballot. One of the initiatives would bar new taxes on the types of financial assets that the billionaire tax is targeting. The other initiative contains a provision about how tax revenue can be spent that is in direct conflict with the wealth tax, and which could override that tax. If voters approve competing measures on the same subject, the one with more “yes” votes wins.⁠⁴⁷

Building a Better California has raised $118 million, all of it from billionaires.

Chris Larsen and Ripple Labs have given the Golden State Promise PAC $10 million, almost the entire budget to date. The California Business Roundtable has made the only other contribution - $450,000. The PAC was founded to combat the billionaire tax and has been airing attack ads.⁠⁴⁸

Appendix 2 — Statewide Races

The California Governor's Race

California’s billionaires and large corporations had two main objectives with their political contributions for the 2026 Primary in the Governor’s race – supporting Matt Mahan and opposing Tom Steyer.

Supporting Matt Mahan

Matt Mahan is a relative newcomer to politics. He was elected to the San Jose City Council in 2020 and mayor in 2022.⁠⁴⁹

Mahan is a centrist Democrat who has been a critic of Governor Gavin Newsom and has been at odds with other members of the party. For instance, Mahan was a vocal supporter of Proposition 36, which was backed by police, prosecutors, and Republicans to increase penalties for some drug and theft offenses and require some defendants to enter treatment programs.⁠⁵⁰ Mahan had also spoken out against the proposed billionaire tax.⁠⁵¹

The California Back to Basics PAC raised $27 million to support Mahan. At least two dozen billionaires were major donors to the PAC.

California Back to Basics — Supporting Matt Mahan

The Deliver for California PAC raised $3.2 million to support Matt Mahan. Billionaire donors included:

Deliver for California — Matt Mahan for Governor

At least 30 billionaires contributed the maximum of $78,400 to Mahan’s campaign.

Opposing Tom Steyer

The California is Not for Sale, No on Steyer PAC raised $37 million to oppose Tom Steyer’s race for Governor. The two largest donors were other PACs - Californians for Resilient and Affordable Energy ($13.6 million) and the JobsPAC ($15.2 million), which is sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce.

Californians for Resilient and Affordable Energy was funded almost exclusively by Pacific Gas & Electric, which contributed $13.5 million. Californians pay the second highest electricity rates in the U.S. after Hawaii, and those rates have grown faster than the national average.⁠⁵² Steyer announced that he would appoint reform-minded regulators to oversee PG&E and other utilities. Steyer said these regulators would cut utility profits and consumers would get a 25% rate cut.⁠⁵³

Pacific Gas & Electric was the largest donor to the JobsPAC, giving $2.4 million. The next two largest donors to the PAC were also utility companies – Southern California Edison’s parent company, Edison International ($2.2 million) and Sempra Energy ($2.2 million). Sempra is the parent company of Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Billionaire Sergey Brin, co-founder and board member of Alphabet/Google, gave $2 million to JobsPAC.

Other large donors to the JobsPAC were: Meta ($2 million); California Apartment Association ($890,000); Airbnb ($500,000), Uber ($500,000), DaVita ($250,000), and Google ($250,000).

Insurance Commissioner's Race

Opposing Jane Kim

The JobsPAC, sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce, spent $1.5 million on independent expenditures, opposing Jane Kim. Kim is a former county supervisor in San Francisco, who was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, and was the California director for the Working Families Party. Kim’s proposals include “universal coverage for climate-related disasters for all residents, capping insurance company CEO pay and excessive industry profits, and guaranteeing healthcare for every child” in the state.⁠⁵⁴

Supporting Ben Allen

Chris Larsen, the chairman and co-founder of Ripple, gave $1 million to the Californians for an Affordable Future PAC, which has spent $991,000 in independent expenditures supporting Ben Allen.

Billionaires who have contributed the max of $9,800 to Allen’s campaign include Bill and Susan Bloomfield, Rick Caruso, Chris Larsen, and Andrew and Jaime Schwartzberg,

Appendix 3 — Additional Legislative Races

State Assembly District 31

Fresno County

Meta and Google each gave $5 million to the California Leads PAC, which spent $964,000 in independent expenditures to support Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea.

Meta’s PAC Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (META) California spent $377,000 on independent expenditures supporting Perea.

State Assembly District 36

Imperial, Riverside, and San Bernardino County

Billionaires backed Republican Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez and Democratic Imperial City Councilmember Ida Obeso-Martinez, who are both supporters of data centers.⁠⁵⁵

Grow California, the PAC founded by crypto billionaires Chris Larsen and Tim Draper, spent $818,000 in independent expenditures supporting Obeso-Martinez. JobsPAC made $246,000 in independent expenditures for Gonzalez.

State Assembly District 51

Los Angeles County

Meta’s PAC Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (META) California spent $281,000 on independent expenditures supporting the incumbent Rick Chavez Zbur.

State Assembly District 80

San Diego County

Meta’s PAC Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (META) California spent $276,000 on independent expenditures supporting David Alvarez.