Chamath Palihapitiya is a Canadian-Sri Lankan engineer, venture capitalist, SPAC sponsor with a net worth of $1.2 billion in 2022.
Also, Palihapitiya is the founder and CEO of Social Capital. It is a venture capital initiative from California working in tech startups, venture capital, seed capital, and private equity.
Before, he was a vice president at Facebook, where he grew the company to become one of the most used forms of social media during his tenure.
Likewise, he made his early fortune from Facebook and made lots of angel investments to create his vast pool of assets today.
Further, his attraction towards SPAC IPOs enabled him to become a new billionaire in Forbes’ list of billionaires in 2021.
He was recognized with the Alumni Award by the University of Waterloo in its 60th-anniversary program.
Table of Contents
Quick Facts
Firstly, here are a few quick facts about the venture capitalist and SPAC sponsor:
| Full Name | Chamath Palihapitiya |
| Net Worth | $1.2 Billion |
| Birth Date | 3 September 1976 |
| Known as | Chamath Palihapitiya |
| Age | 46 Years Old |
| Birth Place | Sri Lanka |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| Nationality | Canadian, American |
| Ethnicity | Sri Lankan |
| Education | Lisgar Collegiate Institute, University of Waterloo |
| Zodiac Sign | Virgo |
| Father’s Name | Gamage Palihapitiya |
| Mother’s Name | Not Available |
| Siblings | Not Available |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) |
| Weight | 71 kg (157 pounds) |
| Sexual Orientation | Straight |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Eye Color | Black |
| Profession | Venture Capitalist, Investor, Engineer |
| Roles | CEO- Social Capital |
| Associations | Amazon, Tesla, Slack, SurveyMonkey, MedMed, HubHaus, Latch, Sunlight Financial, Sprig, Wealthfront |
| Endorsements | Not Available |
| Interests | Basketball, Travel |
| Active Years | 1961-Present |
| Marital Status | Divorced (In a relationship) |
| Girlfriend | Nathalie Dompe |
| Ex-Spouse | Brigette Lau (div 2018) |
| Children | Four |
| Social Media | |
| Last Update | November, 2022 |
Chamath Palihapitiya: Net Worth and Income
Chamath Palihapitiya has generated a massive net worth of $1.2 billion from his Facebook and various investment endeavors.
He earned a handsome salary at Facebook and was often given generous bonuses.
Besides, he has made over $175,000 from participating in three World Series of Poker and two World Poker Tours.
In 2021, he sold off his personal stakes at the Virgin Galactic for a whopping $213 million.
The venture capitalist earned more than $290 million from the Clover Health SPAC. Yet, he had invested a mere $25 thousand into the company.
However, he was accused of deceiving investors by failing to disclose the firm’s shady practices.
In 2019, he was ordered to pay $15.69 million to plaintiffs by the Ontario Superior Court.
Moreover, it was because of conspiring to buy a mobile development platform Xtreme Labs, at a discounted value.
Net Worth of Chamath Palihapitiya in Different Currencies
In the table below are the net worth of Chamath Palihapitiya in different currencies worldwide, including the hot cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
| Currency | Net Worth |
| Euro | € 1,010,778,000,000 |
| Pound Sterling | £ 866,094,000,000 |
| Australian Dollar | A$ 1,614,282,000,000 |
| Canadian Dollar | C$ 1,504,608,000,000 |
| Indian Rupee | ₹ 87,627,600,000,000 |
| BitCoin | ฿ 23,183,940 |
Cars, Private Jet, and Houses
Cars
Chamath was the first person to order the Renovo Coupe, an electric supercar that costs $530,000.
Moreover, it has a 0-60 mph capacity and reaches speeds up to 120 mph.
He also has a Tesla Model 3 Founder’s Edition which starts at $40,000. It boasts dual motors to control redundancy and provides a range of 353 miles.
The EV can achieve speeds of 162 mph and has the famed autopilot feature on-board.
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Private Jet
Chamath owns a luxury Bombardier Global 7500 private jet worth $75 million.
Unsurprisingly, it has the world’s longest range among business jets at 7700 nautical miles.
In addition, the jet comes with a spacious living area, full-fledged kitchen, and crew suite.
Moreover, it has a top speed of 0.925 Mach and can host up to 19 passengers.
Houses
Currently, he lives in Palo Alto with his girlfriend Nathalie Dompe, where he conducts many poker events for his friends.
Also, Chamath has a vacation home in the Sierra Nevada mountains designed by Cynthia Wang and Jamie Bush.
Moreover, the house has a beautiful view of the mountains and a luxurious living area with a fireplace, media room, a top-notch kitchen, etc.
Further, it is constructed with flagstone, western red cedar and is filled with posh amenities.
Chamath Palihapitiya: Lifestyle and Vacations
Lifestyle
Chamath tries to keep his children away from technology but does occasionally take them to watch a movie!
Besides, he likes to play poker and has participated in the main event of the World Series in 2011.
The venture capitalist ended up at the 101st position out of 6,865 entrants in the 2011 competition.
Chamath has quite a sense of fashion, as his Valstar suede jacket was a hit among his Twitter followers.
Moreover, he has a rich taste in luxury watches and has the likes of Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Richard Mille RM035, A Lange & Sohne, etc., in his possession.
Likewise, he is fond of blogging and posted many essays on ‘A Medium Corporation.’
Also, he loves to travel with luxury and regularly places bets on sporting events.
Vacations
Palihapitiya has been to his home country of Sri Lanka a few times to meet with the President and was even appointed as the ICT Ambassador of Sri Lanka.
In 2021, he jetted off to Milan and a Caribbean island to have some off-time.
Chamath Palihapitiya: Charity
In 2021, Chamath announced that he would be donating his initial investments and total profits to The Barstool Fund.
Ultimately, he contributed around $500 thousand to the fund supporting businesses affected by the pandemic.
Similarly, the businessman donated $7 million to the USAone2one to give 1000 families access to clean drinking water through specialized hydro panels.
In addition, he tweeted in 2020 that if the price of bitcoin were to hit $150 thousand, he would buy the Hamptons and convert the area into affordable housing.
Media, Investments, and Book Recommendations
Media
Chamath has appeared in the TV Shows CBS This Morning in 2018 and Poker Night in America in 2017.
Besides, his archive footage has been used in the short documentary ‘Anonymous: This Will Change Everything You Know 2018-2019.’
Similarly, he has been featured in interviews with Bloomberg, CNBC, This Week in Startups, and Phocuswright.
In addition, the businessman has also featured on the Investor’s Podcast Network, Stanford GSB, etc.
Podcast
He hosts a podcast, ‘The All-In Podcast, ‘ with David Sacks, David Friedberg, and Jason Calacanis.
In addition, they cover stuff about the economy, technology, political, social matters, and poker.
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Investments
Chamath is a minority investor and a board member of the NBA side Golden State Warriors.
He is a founding member of the FWD.us. It is a lobbying campaign that started to improve the education system and immigration reforms.
Further, the venture capitalist had started investments during his days as a Facebook employee.
For example, he invested in Palantir, which Disney later acquired, and Bumptop, which Google bought.
Since then, he has been into SPAC IPO’s where he launched Opendoor, an online real estate dealer, and Clover Health, an insurance provider.
Bitcoin
In 2013, Chamath revealed that he owned an amount of Bitcoin equivalent to $5 million. However, he wanted to own about $15 million.
The price of one bitcoin in 2021 has reached around $50,000, so we can expect a vast amount of growth in his crypto investment.
Book Recommendations
While he hasn’t published any books yet, Chamath suggests people read the following books:
- Fermat’s Enigma by Simon Singh
- Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis
- The Professor, The Banker and the Suicide King by Michael King
- The Great Mental Models Volume 1 by Shane Parish
Career
Upon completing his engineering degree, Palihapitiya joined the BMO Nesbitt Burns to work as a derivatives trader.
Then, he headed to Winamp and eventually joined AOL to become the vice president of the company. In doing so, he became the youngest VP ever in a company.
Next, he joined Mayfield Fund and worked for a short period. After that, Chamath joined Facebook and helped the company to increase its userbase.
He started investing during his Facebook days. Later, he left the social networking firm to create Social+Capital Partnership with his ex-wife.
He invested in several companies, including SecondMarket, Box, Slack, Yammer, Glooko, etc.
He has continued investing and, in 2021, entered the billionaire club with a total wealth of $1.2 billion.
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3 Facts About Chamath Palihapitiya
Initially, his family used to live on welfare. So, he used to work part-time at Burger King to make ends meet.
Also, he has always wanted to become rich and was obsessed with the Forbes’ Billionaires List as a child.
He once revealed that he tips at least 100% on most of his outings. It is because he loves to see the joy on the people’s faces when they receive a generous tip.
Social Media Presence
Chamath is highly active on Twitter, where he mostly shares his work and thoughts.
However, he is inactive on other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, etc.
Twitter – 1.5 million followers
Quotes of Chamath Palihapitiya
“Startups should be – if you graph their financial performance, it should be what’s called a J curve. So you start out at zero. you’re not making any money; you’re not losing any money.”
“One of the things I have known my entire life is that I have an innate capability for making money.”
“If the government shuts down, nothing happens, and we all move on because it just doesn’t matter. So stasis in the government is actually good for all of us.”
“Here’s the thing – if you want to do good things in the world, there’s just only so much time that one can spend being a glass half empty.”
FAQs
Did Chamath immigrate from Sri Lanka?
Yes, Chamath was born in Sri Lanka in 1976 and immigrated to Canada at six.
What did Chamath study?
Chamath has studied electrical engineering. And, he earned his degree from the University of Waterloo.
Is Chamath married?
No, Chamath was divorced in 2018 but is currently dating Nathalie Dompe.
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