Chamath Palihapitiya was born on 3 September 1976 and is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian and American venture capitalist, engineer, SPAC sponsor, founder and CEO of Social Capital.
32 Facts About Chamath Palihapitiya
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Chamath Palihapitiya is a co-host of the technology podcast All In.
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Chamath Palihapitiya was born on 3 September 1976 in Sri Lanka.
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In 1982, Chamath Palihapitiya moved with his family to Canada at age five; his father Gamage had been posted to the High Commission of Sri Lanka, Ottawa.
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Chamath Palihapitiya's father was frequently unemployed, and his mother did low-paying housekeeping jobs.
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At age 14, Chamath Palihapitiya worked at a Burger King to support his family.
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Chamath Palihapitiya then accepted a job offer at Winamp and moved to California.
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Chamath Palihapitiya joined Winamp, which was acquired by AOL, where he became the company's youngest vice president ever, heading its instant messaging division in 2004.
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Chamath Palihapitiya led the release of Facebook Beacon, which failed and led to lawsuits.
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Steven Levy wrote in Facebook: The Inside Story that Chamath Palihapitiya was regarded as a "bully" at Facebook, and that he had made many of his subordinates cry regularly.
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Axios reported that Chamath Palihapitiya was spending a significant amount of time with his new girlfriend in Italy and rarely showed up to the office or answered emails from employees.
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In December 2019 Chamath Palihapitiya stepped down as a member of the board of directors of Slack.
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Chamath Palihapitiya previously said that he reserved symbols from IPOA through IPOZ.
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In 2019, Chamath Palihapitiya helped take Virgin Galactic public through a SPAC, previously known as IPOA.
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In March 2021, Chamath Palihapitiya sold his stake Virgin Galactic for around US$213 million.
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In February 2022, Chamath Palihapitiya stepped down as chairman of Virgin Galactic.
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In 2021, Chamath Palihapitiya announced he planned to help take SoFi, a financial services platform, and Clover Health, a Medicare insurance company, public through SPACs.
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Chamath Palihapitiya made more than $290 million from the deal based on a $25k investment.
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Chamath Palihapitiya donated $7,500 to Republican Ted Cruz in 2011.
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In March 2020, Chamath Palihapitiya told The New York Times that he would like to see Michael Bloomberg at the top of the Democratic ticket in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, paired with Amy Klobuchar or Elizabeth Warren.
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Chamath Palihapitiya was listed as one of the "Founders" of the lobbying group FWD.
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An article in The New Republic stated that Chamath Palihapitiya received a weekly report about FWD.
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In November 2017, Chamath Palihapitiya said that, for ethical reasons, he regretted helping Facebook to become the largest social media platform.
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Chamath Palihapitiya reiterated this criticism in a podcast with Kara Swisher.
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On 25 January 2021, Chamath Palihapitiya announced he would challenge incumbent California Governor Gavin Newsom in the event Newsom was recalled.
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Chamath Palihapitiya shared a campaign website that was created by a supporter.
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In February 2021 Chamath Palihapitiya declared he would not run for governor.
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Chamath Palihapitiya said he and most Americans care more about domestic economic issues than the human rights abuses of China's Uyghur minority.
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In 2010, Chamath Palihapitiya helped to buy the Golden State Warriors for $450 million; he remains a minority stakeholder and board member of the team.
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Chamath Palihapitiya has donated consistently to his alma mater, the University of Waterloo, including a $25 million donation towards the engineering department in 2018.
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Chamath Palihapitiya has three World Series of Poker and two World Poker Tour cashes for a total of $175,801.
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Chamath Palihapitiya purchased a $75 million Bombardier Global 7500 in 2020.