Roundup: The billionaire tax / Big bucks / Cash out

Group 1: California Billionaire Tax - A proposed "billionaire tax" in California would impose a one-time, 5% tax on assets of individuals with net worths above $1 billion as of New Year's Day [1] - The tax would apply to various assets including stocks, artwork, and intellectual property rights, rather than income, with a five-year payment period for billionaires [1] Group 2: Insider Selling by Tech Executives - Mega-cap technology companies significantly contributed to U.S. stock market gains in 2025, with executives engaging in substantial insider selling totaling over $16 billion [2] - Jeff Bezos led the sales by selling 25 million shares of Amazon.com Inc. for $5.7 billion, while other executives like Jayshree Ullal of Arista Networks Inc. sold nearly $1 billion in stock [2] - Most top sellers utilized prearranged 10b5-1 trading plans for their transactions [2] Group 3: OpenAI's Compensation Strategy - OpenAI is providing unprecedented stock-based compensation to its employees, averaging about $1.5 million per person across its workforce of roughly 4,000 employees [3] - This compensation level is over seven times larger than what Google offered before its 2004 IPO and approximately 34 times the typical pre-IPO compensation at 18 other major tech firms, adjusted for inflation [3] - The generous equity packages reflect the intense competition for elite AI talent in the industry [3]