In late 2025, Sergey Brin fled California to live in a $42 million lakeside mansion in Nevada, where he continues to rebrand himself as a right-wing donor with the help of his MAGA girlfriend Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto.
Nonetheless, he still wants to steer California politics rightward, with a particular zeal to defeat San Francisco’s Prop D, aka the Overpaid CEO Act.
Brin has now given $500,000 to bolster the ballot measure committee that is fighting the proposed tax, dubbed “Yes on C, No on D to Protect San Francisco's Small Businesses and Economic Recovery.” The contribution was reported in state filings on Wednesday.
It’s an odd foray into local politics for Brin, who has no notable history of living in San Francisco (his philanthropic Sergey Brin Family Foundation, however, is based in the city). In general, Brin’s record of contributions to political causes is a thin one, even if he’s spent a lot of money over the years.
Brin gave money to support same-sex marriage, stem cell research, and clean energy initiatives in the 2000s, along with $2,500 to Barack Obama and $30,800 to the Democratic National Convention in 2011, according to federal filings.
However, Brin largely stayed out of funding California political matters until this year, when he began pouring dollars into the state governor race — in support of centrist San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Fox News talking head Steve Hilton, and far-right Sheriff Chad Bianco — and the nonprofit political group Building a Better California, which is fighting the proposed state “Billionaire Tax" and Prop D. Brin has given some $66 million to Building a Better California, according to state filings.
Brin also gave nearly $450,000 to the Republican National Convention in 2025.
Brin’s $500,000 contribution means he is in third place for individual contributions to the local “Yes on Prop C, No on Prop D” effort, trailing only Ripple’s Chris Larsen ($700,000) and tech and media magnate Michael Moritz ($625,000), per city filings. Despite the pro-small-business narrative driven by Prop C advocates, analysis of the ballot measure suggests that it is a “poison pill” that would cut city tax revenue while quietly preventing future tax increases on highly compensated executives.
Prop D, on the other hand, would substantially raise taxes on large companies that operate with a major disparity in the pay for top executives compared to the median worker’s wage. Analysis by the San Francisco city controller’s office suggests it would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the city budget but also lead to some job cuts.
The money Brin has spent in 2026 is still paltry compared to his overall $304 billion net worth reported by Bloomberg. It’s unclear what Brin stands to gain if Prop D is defeated, and how Google would be affected, given it is not headquartered in San Francisco.
