Who Is Chamath Palihapitiya?

Chamath Palihapitiya is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur who leads Social Capital, a firm investing in energy transition, climate science, life sciences, and deep technology. Born in Sri Lanka in 1976, Palihapitiya was raised in Canada and graduated from the University of Waterloo. He founded Social Capital in 2011 to invest in overlooked sectors. Palihapitiya has sponsored multiple SPACs, including ones that merged with Virgin Galactic and invested in companies like Latch and Sunlight Financial. His firm has invested in various startups, including Palmetto, Mitra Chem, and Saildrone. Before founding Social Capital, Palihapitiya worked at Facebook and AOL, and was a principal at Mayfield Fund. He continues to create SPACs for startups and is active on social media with 1.6 million followers.