Chamath Palihapitiya Net Worth

What is Chamath Palihapitiya’s net worth?

net worth:	$1 billion
age:	forty seven
date of birth:	September 3, 1976
gender:	male
high:	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
country of origin:	Sri Lanka
Source of wealth:	entrepreneur
Last updated:	January 19, 2024

introduce

Chamath Palihapitiya’s net worth is approximately $1 billion.

Chamath Palihapitiya is a venture capitalist, engineer, and CEO of Social Capital.

He was a former Facebook executive, joining the company in 2007 and leaving in 2011.

Palihapitiya is a minority owner and board member of the Golden State Warriors.

early life

Chamath Palihapitiya was born on September 3, 1976 in Sri Lanka.

Palihapitiya immigrated to Canada with his family when he was 6 years old.

His father was unemployed and his mother was a housekeeper.

He attended Lisgar College and graduated at the age of 17.

He graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1999 and later moved to California to live with his then-girlfriend.

Profession

Chamath Palihapitiya is from Sri Lanka. His family is not well off. When he was a teenager, he worked at Burger King to supplement his family income.

He attended Lisgar College and graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1999 with a degree in electrical engineering.

Palihapitiya then worked as a derivatives trader for a year at investment bank BMO Nesbitt Burns before moving to California to work for Winamp.

Like some top NBA players who became entrepreneurs, Palihapitiya may not have started out rich, but he rose quickly.

Find your niche

Chamath Palihapitiya joined Winamp and after the company was acquired by AOL, he became the company’s youngest vice president, responsible for running the instant messaging division.

However, in 2005, he left AOL and joined Mayfield Fund, an American venture capital firm focusing on early-stage and growth-stage investments.

A year after the company got on its feet, he joined Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, when the company was just three years old.

Unfortunately, Palihapitiya’s first year at Facebook, where he led the launch of Facebook Beacon, was not smooth.

Now, if you don’t remember Facebook Beacon, you’re not alone as it flopped soon after its launch and even sparked several lawsuits.

Palihapitiya then focused on growing the platform, and within four years the site had more than 1 billion users.

Start your own business

After leading the creation of Facebook Home and Facebook Phone, Chamath Palihapitiya left the platform in 2011 to start his own fund.

The firm, formerly known as The Social+Capital Partnership and now called Social Capital, focuses on technology startups, seed funds, venture capital and private equity.

Through this firm, Palihapitiya has invested in a number of companies, including Yammer, Slack, Box, Glooko, etc.

In 2018, Social Capital’s business shrank significantly and a large number of co-founders and managers left.

Palihapitiya reportedly spends a lot of time in Europe, especially in the world’s most expensive country, and rarely responds to any emails.

Shortly thereafter, the firm returned investors’ capital and transformed itself into a family office, continuing to manage some outside capital at no charge.

Transformation and acquisitions

When Social Capital became a family office, Chamath Palihapitiya began investing in climate science, biotechnology and life sciences.

He also began to focus on the decentralization of the digital economy, emphasizing digital assets, encryption and blockchain.

In 2019, he helped Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galactic go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Palihapitiya later sold his stake in Virgin Galactic for about $213 million and stepped down as chairman.

Shortly thereafter, he took online real estate marketplace Opendoor public through a SPAC, and plans to help SoFi and Clover Health go public in 2021.

During the GameStop short squeeze, Palihapitiya attacked trading app Robinhood, saying its practices led to losses.

Most recently, in September 2023, Palihapitiya hosted a fundraiser at his home for former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy with each license plate offering at least $50,000.