Who is Chamath Palihapitiya, the former Facebook executive donating to Newsom’s recall?
Chamath Palihapitiya helped grow the world’s largest social media company, founded a multi-million dollar investment fund, and last week became one of the major backers of the campaign to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Palihapitiya, a 44 year-old billionaire who was an early executive at Facebook, donated $100,000 to Rescue California on Friday, the committee supporting the Newsom recall.
He’s been needling Newsom in the press, too.
Palihapitiya, in an interview last week on CNBC, slammed the Democratic governor for the state of affairs in California, saying he “has done a terrible job,” and citing high crime rates, high taxes, poor air quality and residents leaving the state.
He hasn’t launched an official campaign, but last week the billionaire tweeted out a link to what looked to be a campaign website called Chamath for CA.
“California is a mess,” the campaign site reads. “It’s too expensive, our teachers are underpaid, and our schools aren’t good enough.”
On Wednesday, Palihapitiya dismissed the suggestion of a gubernatorial campaign on his podcast “All In,” telling co-hosts that “’I’m not ready to do any of that.”
Nonetheless, the tech investor has plenty of ideas for what California could be doing better. His “campaign site” includes half a dozen proposals for improving the Golden State, including $70,000 teachers salaries, eliminating student debt, and slashing personal income tax to 0%, while still driving up the state’s tax revenue.
California this year anticipates collecting about $100 billion in personal income tax, according to Newsom’s 2021-22 budget proposal. It’s the primary funding source for California government, so wiping it out would require a massive rethinking of how the state does business.
Palihapitiya left the tech giant in 2011, before moving on to start his own investment fund, Social Capital, in Palo Alto. The company’s mission, according to the website, is to “advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems.”
The company’s investments include Slack, Bustle, Survey Monkey and more than 50 other healthcare, education, financial and consumer services companies.
When he’s not investing in companies or political recall campaigns, Palihapitiya is known to be a skilled poker player, is a partial owner of the Golden State Warriors basketball team, and co-hosts “All In,” an investment podcast.
Recall organizers say they’re approaching the minimum number of signatures needed to put a Newsom recall on the ballot. As of Monday the campaign reported collecting 1.3 million signatures. It needs 1.5 million verified signatures by the March 17 to qualify for the ballot.
Two Republicans, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and businessman John Cox have also expressed interest in succeeding Newsom, should the opportunity arise before 2022. Faulconer officially launched his campaign for governor Monday evening and Cox, who ran against Newsom in 2018, has said he would also run if the recall qualified.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.