Uber CEO Calls Capital Gains Tax Break 'Nonsense' as Q3 Revenue Hits $14.8B

Uber reported $14.8 billion in third-quarter revenue on the same morning its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, used a live CNBC appearance to call for rebalancing the U.S. tax code so that capital gains and regular income no longer face different rates. Revenue rose 10% year over year, while operating income climbed 30% to $1.4 billion, the company said.

The remarks came during an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box, where Khosrowshahi argued that the midterm elections — which delivered what he described as a Democratic sweep — sent a "very clear message" about the damage inflation has inflicted on American consumers. He traced the problem back further than the current price surge, to the structural shifts that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Wages, he said, have not kept pace with rapidly rising prices.

What did the Uber chief actually say about capitalism?

Khosrowshahi framed his argument in the language of returns. "When you look at capitalism, there's capital investment and return on capital, and obviously there's return on labor," he said. "If you look over the past 20 years, return on capital has increased very, very significantly. You can't say the same thing about return on labor."

The claim is a compact summary of a long-running debate among economists: over roughly two decades, owners of assets — equities, property, machinery — have captured gains that outstripped what workers earned from wages. For a reader weighing the point, it means the gap between investing for a living and working for one has widened, in his telling, substantially.

He extended the argument to artificial intelligence, which he said compounds the anxiety workers already feel. "AI is an instantiation of capital where, to some extent, capital could replace labor as well, which is rightfully, in some cases, scaring people," Khosrowshahi said. "But it's also very, very powerful in its potential."

That second clause matters as much as the first. The CEO of one of the world's largest gig platforms, a company that stands to benefit if AI and automation cut labor costs, is warning about labor displacement while praising the technology's promise. He did not address Uber's own exposure to that dynamic in the interview.

Why the tax code, and why now?

Asked how politicians and business leaders should respond, Khosrowshahi pointed to one specific lever: the preferential treatment of capital gains. "[The fact that] capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than regular income makes no sense to me," he said. "They should be balanced."

He stopped short of endorsing a specific direction. "Whether you should raise one or lower the other one, that's really up to the folks in power," he added. "But it doesn't seem right to me."

Khosrowshahi also flagged his own position, noting he was sharing his personal opinion and that he is "not a politician." It is a notable hedge from a CEO whose company depends on regulatory goodwill in hundreds of jurisdictions. A chief executive calling for higher effective taxes on capital — his own compensation category — is rare, though he carefully left the mechanism to lawmakers rather than prescribing one.

Who is making this argument, and from what vantage point?

Khosrowshahi has led Uber since 2017, when he replaced cofounder Travis Kalanick amid a series of scandals involving the company's workplace culture and leadership. Before Uber, he was CEO of the online travel company Expedia.

The context sharpens the irony. Uber employs millions of drivers and couriers who work as independent contractors — a workforce whose "return on labor" is set by algorithmic pricing rather than salary negotiation. Khosrowshahi's diagnosis of labor's declining share did not extend, at least in this interview, to his own company's pay model.

What else did Uber disclose?

Alongside the commentary, the company laid out its robotics roadmap. Uber said it expects to have about 700 fully driverless vehicles operating on its platform by year-end. That figure is modest against a fleet of millions of human drivers, but it signals the direction of travel: the same capital-substituting-for-labor dynamic the CEO described, arriving inside his own business.

With revenue growing 10% and operating income up 30%, Uber can afford the transition. Whether its drivers share in that growth remains the question Khosrowshahi's own analysis raises — and one he left unanswered.