5 things you might not know about Chamath Palihapitiya



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Benzinga readers and investors may be more familiar with Chamath Palihapitiya as “SPAC King” and for his role in the 2020 SPAC boom. Here is more information about Palihapitiya and some lesser known facts that readers can. not knowing.

About Palihapitiya: Born in Sri Lanka, Palihapitiya immigrated to Canada at the age of six.

After stays at AOL, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Slack Technologies (NYSE: WORK), Palihapitiya launched The Social + Capital Partnership, a fund to invest in businesses that no large corporation would fund.

Palihapitiya started Social Capital Hedosophia with Ian Osborne to use the alternative route to traditional IPOs to bring innovative technology companies to the public market. Palihapiya intends to make public companies using PSPCs named alphabetically from IPOA to IPOZ. Six of the first SPACs have been launched, three closed and one awaiting merger.

“My ambition is to be the Berkshire Hathaway of our generation. It will be a Berkshire, a holding company that, instead of owning Gillette, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, will own technology companies, ”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. Share capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp V (NYSE: IPOE) announced a merger with SoFi last week.

Palihapitiya has also invested in SPAC agreements involving MP materials (NYSE: MP), Office metal (NYSE: DM) and INSU Acquisition Corp II (NASDAQ: INAQ) targets Metromile.

Related Link: Chamath Palihapitiya IPOD, IPOE, IPOF SPAC: What Investors Need to Know

Social media pioneer: Prior to launching Social Capital, Palihapitiya was Facebook’s most successful original executive team member. At Facebook, Palihapitiya held positions in support of mobile and international growth and served as vice president of user growth before leaving. At Facebook, Palihapitiya has helped the company grow its user base from 50 million to 700 million.

Palihapitiya has slammed Facebook in recent years and sold all of its stock in 2014. At a Benzinga Boot Camp event, Palihapitiya said Facebook should have been made public earlier, as it could have helped 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 history at the age of 26.

Big fan of poker: SPAC King is a big fan of poker and has even participated in several World Series of Poker events.

Palihapitiya competed in the main 2011 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em 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 to host poker games at his home with well-known Silicon Valley friends and investors like David Sacks and Jason Calacanis.

Phil Hellmuth, the all-time best WSOP bracelet holder with 15, also competed in 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 top performing assets of the past two years get Palihapitiya Seal of Approval and have more room to grow.

Palihapitiya has invested in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) in 2016. Over the years, Palihapitiya has said that cars were “just the first wave of growth” for the company. Tesla could become the biggest company in the world, according to Palihapitiya.

In 2012, Palihapitiya began investing in Bitcoin, buying over $ 1 million on the recommendation of a friend. The investor no longer owns Bitcoin but invests in companies that own Bitcoin because it is easier to manage stocks instead of coins or wallets, according to Palihapitiya.

Bitcoin could reach 200,000 in the next five or 10 years, Palihapitiya said in a recent CNBC interview.

Amazon Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) could be worth $ 3 trillion by 2025, Palihapitiya said in 2016.

“You are supporting these people who have (an) incredibly intelligent character, who know what they’re doing, who aren’t going to bow to short-term profits and who are just going to drive the train for 10 to 20 years and win the world is better, ”Palihapitiya said of Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

Fascinated early in wealth, now pays for the future: Palihapitiya was fascinated by the list of Forbes billionaires at a young age and dreamed of becoming rich one day.

Palihapitiya now uses his wealth as a bridge to help others. The investor is known to tip 100% in restaurants to pay it up front and see the joy of others from this simple gesture.

NBA Owner: In 2011, Palihapitiya became a minority investor in the NBA Golden State Warriors. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the team that won the NBA championship in 2015, 2017 and 2018.

The Warriors are ranked third franchise in the NBA by Forbes. The team’s value has grown from $ 363 million in 2011 to $ 4.3 billion in 2020.

Disclosure: the author is long DM, IPOD.

Photo credit: Cmichel67 via Wikimedia

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