Sergey Brin opens up about harrowing Soviet past — says California lost its way | Latest Tech News
A resurfaced interview of Google co-founder Sergey Brin detailed his dramatic journey from the Soviet Union to Silicon Valley — a background that has led him to oppose California’s proposed billionaire tax.
Brin broke his silence in a New York Times report Monday on why he’s pouring money into campaigns to stop the tax proposal, which might be up in entrance of voters this November.
“I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union,” the tech determine value $260 billion said. “I don’t want California to end up in the same place.”
Sergey Brin at Stanford in December.
During a December event for Stanford University’s School of Engineering, Brin mentioned his upbringing when requested about what deeply held beliefs he had to change when building Google.
He was born in Moscow, he recounted, where “everybody was poor.” He lived in a 400-foot-square condominium with dad and mom and grandparents and 5 flights of stairs.
“I didn’t really think about the world outside,” he said.
But his father received a “taste,” Brin recalled, when he travelled to Poland for a convention and was told what the Western world was like. The father determined to transfer the household in 1979, which was controversial, Brin said. Brin was just six.
They arrived at America still poor. Brin said he had to study a new language and make new mates, a difficult transition but also “awakening.”
Sergey Brin attends the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Getty Images
Brin earned a bachelor’s degree in Maryland but received accepted into graduate faculty at Stanford. He said he felt a related “awakening” when he arrived in California.
“Just something about California that was very freeing and liberating given the tradition of the state,” he said — but he added it’s a custom “that we’re getting a little bit away from in California, if I’m being honest.”
All those “painful” transitions, he said, paid off.
Brin determined not to “complain” about how California was veering off track at the event, but his latest actions against the billionaire tax point out disapproval.
California’s proposed billionaire tax has reanimated Brin. AFP via Getty Images
The tech titan has spent at least $57 million preventing the proposed tax, bankrolling a group called Building a Better California alongside a cadre of Silicon Valley enterprise capitalists and entrepreneurs. Efforts embody competing poll initiatives that might override the wealth tax.
Along with some other billionaires, Brin has diminished his belongings in California since the tax was first proposed, shifting to a $42 million Lake Tahoe chalet to escape the levy.
The Google founder once backed causes such as same-sex marriage and climate coverage. He supported Democratic President Barack Obama’s reelection and made destructive remarks about his Republican successor Donald Trump.
Now, Brin is throwing help behind the Trump-endorsed candidate Steve Hilton in the California governor’s race.
The tax has appeared to notably reanimate Brin’s political activism. The 5% tax on billionaires, proposed by labor union SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, would transfer funding to healthcare and teaching programs threatened by federal funding cuts, according to proponents.
Opponents, including Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — whom Brin warned about his leaving the state — say it could harm the state’s financial and innovation engine.
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