Billionaires are funding the 2026 election, and California is home to some of the top political contributors.
A new report from California Common Good found ultra-wealthy donors are buying political power to shape the future of the state. Billionaires and their affiliated companies are pouring cash into politics like never before.
What they found is this: They’re backing candidates and policies friendly to data centers, crypto, and artificial intelligence (AI). And they’re fighting tax measures that could affect their own wallets.
Since President Donald Trump’s reelection, the collective wealth of California’s 225 billionaires has grown by $570.8 billion, or 36.2%. Yet, tech moguls continue to pour millions into local, state, and federal races and key ballot measures.
The report released July 16 tracked political donations across the state during the 2025-2026 election cycle, through the June 2 primary. The report highlighted the specific local, state, and federal elections and ballot measures across California where tech billionaires are concentrating their spending.
The report found that billionaires’ corporations often add their own large contributions to the same PACs, causes, and candidates, compounding their owners’ political influence.
“The fact that 15 ultra-rich people are using their personal and business wealth to influence the political realities of 40 million Californians should alarm every voter in this state,” said Christina Livingston, executive director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Institute (ACCE) Institute.
“The government will never live up to its promise of providing for its constituents if it is being bought and paid for by the wealthy,” she added.
Who are California’s biggest political spenders?
The report shows the state’s top four billionaire donors and their affiliated corporations have given a combined $331 million so far this election cycle, already a 147% increase from their total spending in the 2023-2024 election cycle.
Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin, has outspent every other billionaire on state politics. He’s given $86 million to California political committees alone, making him one of the top five political spenders in the country.
Google donated $8.7 million in corporate political giving just this election cycle.
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, two of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capitalists, have given a combined $143 million.
Andreessen was a longtime Democratic donor—he backed Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, and Hillary Clinton—before switching his party support to back Trump in 2024, citing the Republican Party’s stance on crypto and tech regulation.
Horowitz, his business partner at the firm Andreessen Horowitz, made the same switch, citing similar concerns about crypto regulation under the Biden administration.
Chris Larsen, chairperson of the cryptocurrency company Ripple, is the second-largest contributor to state elections, having given over $25 million in contributions. Unlike the other three, Larsen has a history of backing Democratic candidates—including a contribution to Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign—though his money increasingly flows to business-friendly candidates in both parties.
Victor Sanchez, executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), said increased investment by tech companies and owners poses a direct threat to people’s livelihoods. “The tech bros are getting rich off the promise to automate all our jobs. But the real threat is what their tech is doing to workers on the job right now,” he said.
In response to the report’s findings, protests were held on July 17, 2026, in three California cities. A coalition of organizers from various California-based organizations gathered in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Demonstrators gathered outside the home of Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen; in Los Angeles, protesters assembled outside the home of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen; and in San Diego, demonstrators demanded accountability outside Google’s offices.
The report is just the tip of the political contribution iceberg. Its findings are an early indicator of how much billionaire and corporate money is shaping California’s political landscape.
With the general election still months away, that $289 million total is likely to keep climbing.
