Tech’s biggest names sunk a tax on billionaires’ wealth with $425m and a familiar playbook

California saw the most expensive opposition campaign in its history as funding of political campaigns broke records in the US midterms

In the hours after polls closed on election day, tech industry players began praising Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, on social media.

“Huge thanks to Sergey Brin here,” wrote Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator. Venture capitalist Ilya Sukhar posted: “God bless Sergey Brin.” And David Marcus, a crypto entrepreneur, simply wrote: “Hero.”

They were all referring to Brin’s instrumental role in the defeat of California’s wealth tax ballot measure, known as Proposition 40. The proposed one-time 5% tax on billionaires in the state is poised to be defeated by double-digit numbers.