Sergey Brin Donates His Largest Sum Yet to Address California’s Housing Crisis, Weeks After Moving to the Nevada Side of Lake Tahoe

Co-founder Sergey Brin has made his largest single public donation to date to address California’s housing crisis, just weeks after purchasing a $42 million mansion on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe as his primary residence, according to new filings and property records. This move demonstrates how one of the world’s wealthiest individuals is attempting to shape the future of a state from which he is increasingly distancing himself physically and, potentially, for tax reasons, as questions arise about how many California billionaires might leave the state due to a ballot initiative targeting 1% of their wealth.

Brin has pledged $20 million to a new organization called Building a Better California, a political and policy initiative aimed directly at California’s worsening housing affordability issues, as recent state disclosures show, as first reported by . The funds are part of a broader $35 million launch package that includes $15 million from eight other wealthy business leaders, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and venture capitalist Michael Moritz, who each contributed $2 million. Roughly a week earlier, another Silicon Valley billionaire, , made his largest political donation in years, contributing $3 million to a California business group leading the fight against a proposed billionaire wealth tax.

Brin’s contribution stands out even in his rapidly expanding philanthropic and political spending and was described to the Times by those familiar with his giving as his most visible single cash commitment to housing affordability in the state. Building a Better California is expected to support statewide ballot measures and legislation that would boost housing construction and streamline approvals, positioning Brin as a major player in one of California’s most contentious policy battles. One person familiar with Brin’s thinking told the Times that Brin has been considering potential reforms to address California’s economic and budget issues since last year, when the wealth tax effort was not on the radar.

Moving out as money moves in

The increase in Brin’s political contributions comes just weeks after he was linked to the purchase of Crystal Pointe, a sprawling lakefront estate on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe that sold for $42 million. on public records and LLC paperwork indicating that the buyer is connected to Brin and part of a broader effort to move assets and residency out of California.

The Lake Tahoe property, once marketed as one of the region’s most expensive listings, features multiple structures on five acres, direct lake access, and two glass funiculars running down the hillside to the water.

on Brin and his fellow Google co-founder severing their ties to California in various other ways. For example, in the 10 days before Christmas, an entity associated with Brin terminated or relocated 15 California limited liability companies, according to documents reviewed by the Times. Seven of these were converted into Nevada entities.

Page, meanwhile, has followed a more Bezos-like approach by moving to Miami, spending approximately $173 million on two ultra-luxury waterfront mansions in Miami’s posh Coconut Grove neighborhood. Regulatory filings show that Page also moved his family office and several investment and holding entities out of California, , reincorporating in Delaware and listing new business addresses in Florida.

The $20 million housing donation comes during a rapid expansion of Brin’s overall giving, driven by large transfers of Alphabet stock to philanthropic vehicles over the past two years. A recent analysis found that Brin’s grantmaking has surpassed that of several established foundations, with his vehicles , solidifying his status as one of America’s most active big-money donors. His Catalyst4 nonprofit and family foundation has funds earmarked for areas such as health, climate, and scientific research.

Housing crisis backdrop

California’s housing crisis has become a defining challenge for the state, with high rents, soaring home prices, and persistent homelessness fueling voter anger and . Cities across the Bay Area and Los Angeles have struggled to approve and build enough housing units to keep up with job growth, while local opposition and complex financing rules have slowed affordable housing projects. Los Angeles and San Francisco, along with Miami and New York, are among the cities on UBS Global Wealth Management’s most recent with some of the most out-of-control housing prices globally.

One person appears to agree with Brin on housing: an architect of the wealth tax who seems to be encouraging Brin to leave the state. , a UC Berkeley law professor, leading wealth tax expert, and one of the designers of the billionaires tax ballot proposal. He is also a recent transplant to the Bay Area, after spending a decade teaching at Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and growing up in the New York City area. “I think one of the things I find most puzzling [about California] is their housing policy,” he told , adding that he believes California “could embrace newcomers more enthusiastically,” but that there is far too little available housing.

“I won’t share my housing search experience, but it was painful,” Galle said. “And I’m sure that’s true for everyone.” He said the famously car-centric and sprawling state seems to have other problems as well, with counterproductive urban planning decisions. For example, the local BART stations in Berkeley and Oakland are not surrounded by dense development. “You look around, and there’s an empty parking lot with a tumbleweed rolling through it. And you wonder, what are we doing? [In] Washington, D.C., this entire area would be filled with condos and retail, and it seems like California never understood how to build on the infrastructure it has invested billions in.”

Although Galle emphasized that he is a lawyer and not an economist by training, he believes economics can be useful here. “There is a lot of recent evidence that building more housing is actually beneficial for existing homeowners, generally speaking. Everyone assumes, ‘Well, if I allow more housing to be built, it will devalue my home.’ But it turns out that having more people in your neighborhood means there are more people who love your neighborhood and want to live there.”

The new housing push in California extends Brin’s influence into overtly political territory, where deep-pocketed donors are increasingly funding campaigns that aim to reshape how and where the state builds homes. For California, Brin’s latest move highlights an emerging paradox: Even as billionaire founders relocate their wealth and residences to lower-tax states, their money is flowing back into battles over how the Golden State will house its workers and distribute the costs of its prosperity.