Benzinga’s readers and investors can get to know Chamath Palihapitiya better as the “King of SPAC” and for his role in the 2020 SPAC boom. Here is more about Palihapitiya and some lesser-known facts that readers may not know.
About Palihapitiya: Born in Sri Lanka, Palihapitiya emigrated to Canada at the age of six.
After working at AOL, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Slack Technologies (NYSE: WORK), Palihapitiya launched The Social + Capital Partnership, a fund to invest in ventures that no large company would finance.
Palihapitiya launched Capital Social Hedosophia with Ian Osborne to use the alternative path to traditional IPOs to bring innovative technology companies to the public market. Palihapiya has plans to make companies public using SPACs named in alphabetical order from IPOA to IPOZ. Six of the first SPACs were launched, three closed and one pending merger.
“My ambition is to be the Berkshire Hathaway of our generation. It will be a Berkshire, a holding company that, instead of controlling Gillette, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, will have technology businesses, ”Palihapitiya told Fortune.
Palihapitiya is the president of Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE), and brought Opendoor Technologies (NASDAQ: OPEN) public with IPOB and Clover Health (NASDAQ: CLOV) with IPOC. Capital Social Hedosophia Holdings Corp V (NYSE: IPOE) announced a merger with SoFi last week.
Palihapitiya also invested in SPAC businesses involving MP materials (NYSE: MP), Table metal (NYSE: DM) and INSU Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ: INAQ) destination metromyl.
Related link: IPOD, IPOE, IPOF SPACs from Chamath Palihapitiya: What investors should know
Social media pioneer: Prior to launching Social Capital, Palihapitiya was the most senior member of Facebook’s original senior management team. While on Facebook, Palihapitiya played a role in helping mobile and international growth and served as vice president of user growth before leaving. While on Facebook, Palihapitiya helped the company increase its user base from 50 million to 700 million.
Palihapitiya has criticized Facebook in recent years and sold all of its shares in 2014. At an event at Benzinga Boot Camp, Palihapitiya said that Facebook should have been made public before, as it could have helped in an earlier transition to mobile.
Prior to joining Facebook, Palihapitiya worked at AOL and was responsible for ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger. Palihapitiya was the youngest vice president in AOL’s history at age 26.
Big poker fan: SPAC King is a huge poker fan and has competed in several World Series of Poker events.
Palihapitiya participated in the 2011 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em main event, where he placed 101st and won $ 54,851. In three World Series of Poker events, Palihapitiya won $ 138,701.
The investor is also known for hosting poker games at his home with friends and well-known Silicon Valley investors like David Sacks and Jason Calacanis.
Phil Hellmuth, the biggest WSOP bracelet holder at 15, also played poker games with Palihapitiya. Hellmuth has won over $ 15 million in World Series of Poker competitions.
Palihapitiya hosts the All-In podcast, named for his love of poker, with Sacks, Calacanis and David Friedberg.
Believer in Amazon, Tesla and Bitcoin: Three of the most popular and best-performing assets of the past two years have received the Palihapitiya seal of approval and have more room to grow.
Palihapitiya invested in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) in 2016. Over the years, Palihapitiya has argued that cars are “just the first wave of growth” for the company. Tesla could become the largest company in the world, according to Palihapitiya.
In 2012, Palihapitiya started investing in Bitcoin, buying more than $ 1 million on the recommendation of a friend. The investor no longer has Bitcoin, but is investing in companies that have Bitcoin, as it is easier to manage stocks instead of coins or portfolios, according to Palihapitiya.
Bitcoin could reach 200,000 in the next five or 10 years, Palihapitiya said in a recent interview with CNBC.
Amazon Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) may be worth $ 3 trillion in 2025, said Palihapitiya in 2016.
“You support these people who have (an) incredibly intelligent character, who know what they’re doing, who won’t bow to short-term profits and just drive the train for 10 to 20 years and make the world a better place ”Said Palihapitiya about Elon Musk, from Tesla, and Jeff Bezos, from Amazon.
Fascinated by wealth from the start, now pay it forward: Palihapitiya was fascinated by the Forbes list of billionaires from a young age and dreamed of getting rich one day.
Palihapitiya now uses his wealth as a bridge to help others. The investor is known for tipping 100% in restaurants as a way of giving back and seeing the joy of others with this simple gesture.
NBA owner: In 2011, Palihapitiya became a minority investor in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. He is currently a board member of the team that won the NBA championship in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
The Warriors are ranked the third most valuable franchise in the NBA by Forbes. The team’s value went from $ 363 million in 2011 to $ 4.3 billion in 2020.
Disclosure: The author is over DM, IPOD.
Photo credit: Cmichel67 via Wikimedia
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