Bloomberg - Chamath Palihapitiya has already drafted the next chapter in his charmed-life story.
The immigrant kid who bootstrapped his way into riches at Facebook Inc., made billions as a risk-hungry investor and became the pied piper of the current blank-check craze now envisions himself as nothing less than the Warren Buffett of the Reddit era.
“Nobody’s going to listen to Buffett,” Palihapitiya, the founder of Social Capital, said in a Bloomberg “Front Row” interview. “But there has to be other folks that take that mantle, take the baton and do it as well to this younger generation in the language they understand.”
The language, of course, is social media. That’s where the 44-year-old billionaire talks up his deals, trolls the establishment and hypes “all things Chamath.” Recently, he stoked speculation he might run for governor of California. Occasionally, he tweets out shirtless selfies to his 1.3 million followers. His feed is a digital stream of consciousness.
With Twitter as his bullhorn, Palihapitiya has become the undisputed king of special-purpose acquisition companies, the hottest thing on Wall Street. Together with Ian Osborne, a public-relations soothsayer turned financier, he has sponsored six SPACs, raised a total of $4.34 billion and acquired businesses in space travel, health insurance, financial services and real estate.
Lightning Rod
Along the way, Palihapitiya has made a fortune for himself and his investors, and helped whip up a frenzy that has everyone from Colin Kaepernick to former House Speaker Paul Ryan racing to market their own SPACs. He’s also a lightning rod for skeptics who pooh-pooh his success as the product of relentless self-promotion and see blank-check companies as proof of a bubble inflated by massive government money-printing.