$11.42 -0.30 (-2.56%) As of 03:59 PM Eastern
We are led by Chamath Palihapitiya, the founder and Managing Partner of Social Capital. Like Social Capital, the company is formed to confront the world’s hardest problems. Although these problems have evolved over the past decade, our approach remains the same—with a dedication to first principles thinking, deep technological understanding and a willingness to be contrarian to consensus. --- We intend to find companies that operate in sectors that we believe will be instrumental in maintaining U.S. global leadership for the next century. We believe that these innovative sectors are dependent on new company formation, the sustainability of robust private market funding and an increased willingness of private technology companies to become publicly-traded and therefore become available to a broader universe of investors who can benefit from their disruption and growth. Although there are many industries that are critically important in maintaining U.S. global leadership, we intend to focus on four areas that we believe are the most critical for investment and in which we have direct expertise. • Energy Production: Led by reindustrialization, AI, data centers and electrification, the United States has faced a sustained increase in demand for energy for the first time in two decades. In order for the United States to maintain energy independence, we do not believe there is any substitute to an ‘all of the above’ approach to energy production. While fracking and the natural gas revolution have supported the United States to date, we do not believe that this will be sufficient in the coming decades. Scaled solar energy, commercial nuclear energy, enhanced geothermal energy and mining for critical non-fuel minerals that are essential to national and economic security are all areas that will require capital in the coming years to support economic growth. • In this area, Social Capital led a $375 million Series C round in 2021 for Palmetto, a clean energy and technology services platform. In 2024, Palmetto secured more than $1.2 billion in capital to expand LightReach, accelerating solar adoption to an average of 300 new households per day across 30 states, according to a press release issued by Palmetto. • Artificial Intelligence: Venture investment in AI reached a record $130 billion in 2024, as reported in fDi Intelligence, as new language models competed for market share against established incumbents—while incumbents accelerated investment to keep their technological advantages. While the ultimate implications of the AI arms race are unclear, it appears obvious that we are in the early innings of a paradigm change in how technology interacts with day-to-day life. We will look to opportunities in AI technology itself, as well as solutions that solve the defining constraints of compute and technology. • In this area, Social Capital led Groq’s Series A and Series B rounds in 2016 and 2018 to develop custom silicon designed specifically for fast and scalable AI inference. Since then, Groq has raised over $1 billion to deploy its chips known as LPUs in data centers around the world. In addition, Mr. Palihapitiya founded 8090 in 2024 to build an AI-enabled software factory designed to produce high-quality, well-maintained enterprise software and has seen firsthand how AI has the power to fundamentally reshape our relationship with work. • Decentralized Finance: While Mr. Palihapitiya has long been a proponent of Bitcoin as an inflation hedge and alternative to fiat currencies, we believe that the next stage of development is the increased integration between traditional finance and decentralized finance. Recent developments such as the success of the public market debut of Circle Internet Group Inc. (NYSE: CRCL) has demonstrated how decentralized finance can be used to disintermediate traditional finance intermediaries and provide clear value for customers via reduced friction. As adoption accelerates across both consumers and institutions, we believe the opportunities for thoughtful application of decentralized finance are significant. • In this area, as an early investor in Bitcoin and Digital Currency Group, Mr. Palihapitiya has long believed in the power of decentralized finance and blockchain technologies to revolutionize traditional finance. Although the path to mainstream acceptance has taken longer than expected, the expansion of digital assets (including stablecoins) into the mainstream now appears to be inevitable. • Defense: Over the last decade, the U.S. Department of Defense budget requests for procurement and R&D have increased by approximately 340%, reaching $30.6 billion in 2024 from $9 billion in 2015, as reported by the Deloitte Research Center for Energy & Industrials. We believe the defense industry is expected to see continued growth as heightened geopolitical tensions contribute to increases in defense spending, notably in the unmanned systems market. • In this area, Social Capital led a Series A round in 2016 for Saildrone, which is a solution for offshore energy development and protection. Since then, Saildrone has raised over $200 million in funding to scale production and deploy its fleet of wind and solar-powered unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) for applications in climate science, maritime security and ocean mapping. Our executive offices are located Menlo Park, CA.
