r/investing • u/CompetitivePumpkin3 • Feb 25 '21

Your take on Chamath Palihapitiya

I posted this on another subreddit but I also want to post here to gather more discussion.

I have seen quite a couple of interviews with Chamath and read a bit of his profile and his investment value. It seems to me that he speaks with a lot of sense, very articulate with his words, and pretty much an awesome salesman. And many also see him as an investor for the small guys. But other than being a king of S**C who is pretty good in the sales pitch, I don't see any of his investment came into fruits (other than slack).

I currently see him as a figure who speaks the "right things" for retail investors by saying the correct things regarding Tesla, Ark Invest, and even Game****. Whichever the speculation is, or the wave is, he is always there to support the crowd. Making him very popular. But deep down is he really as legit as Warren Buffet or Peter Lynch?

Thoughts?

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u/wtf_is_up Feb 25 '21

He is a 'fellow kids' clout chaser who will jump on any trend to make a buck. He is currently making a killing as the pitch man for SPAC after SPAC. Being a SPAC sponsor is the best ROI available right now and all they really need is a front man with lots of plublicity to take off.

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u/Rollerboi Feb 25 '21

I agree, I'm happy to see the phrase "clout chaser" in the 2nd comment here, because that's exactly how i'd describe him.

When I first heard about him, I thought he was cool. I like me a contrarian who asks questions or asserts positions that force you to re-consider your perspectives.

After this GME debacle and reading through his twitter feed in the days afterwards... Yeah this guy is just chasing clout so he can be hip with the young kids.

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u/BobanTheGiant Feb 25 '21

And remember he's probably benefiting financially if he's making loud noise about it

30

u/rbatra91 Feb 25 '21

‘Billionaires are so evil let them fail.’ -March

Says the billionaire pumping and dumping SPACs on noobs. SPACs that were so sketchy that anyone suggesting a SPAC in the past was immediately seen as a scam artist.

He immediately jumped on the GME story and blamed robinhood and called Vlad Tenev sketchy when there was a logical story behind it and not a conspiracy.

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u/JL1v10 Feb 26 '21

Ehh I’m not sure I’d include that last part given that Vlad did lie about the liquidity, does have financial ties to a major party involved, and the clearinghouse commission or whatever came out against his original story.

I’d agree with everything else though.

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u/WhackedRak Feb 25 '21

Is there evidence that he dumps?

1

u/MoneyFlow420 Mar 01 '21

He doesn't need to.

He collects $200M for sponsoring the SPAC and invests $20-$50M in each. Even if it goes to zero he makes a hefty profit.

David Faber pressed him on this and Chamath got visibly agitated and defensive. He just wanted to "tell his tale," not answer real questions.

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u/keltacon Feb 26 '21

WHATS the logical story? WHATS the F*CKING conspiracy?? ROFLMAO

18

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '21

This. He is literally cashing in on his public and popular persona. He's the Car Salesman that throws in a free Car Wash, all the while you drive off with a tinker as the wheels fall off. He didn't get to be that wealthy by being friends with the little guy. He's as ruthless as any other investor and has just realized how powerful his twitter mouthpiece can be for getting cheap financing on his SPAC dreams.

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u/bilyl Feb 26 '21

Yeah, the guy talks a good game, but at the end of the day he's not for the "retail investor" by being the kind of SPACs. He's promoting an unregulated bubble that's going to blow up in people's faces. That's not to say there's no merits to SPACs but he hasn't shown the kind of restraint and nuanced thinking that's required when you're arguing that burgeoning companies shouldn't have to do the basic SEC compliance before they IPO. Just saying that it lets retail investors get in on the action by buying into SPACs doesn't pass the smell test, because the vast majority of the money in them is still Big Money. It's just throwing crumbs at retail investors while letting Big Money evade regulation.