The M-A Investment Club invited billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya to speak during lunch on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Over a hundred students packed Ayers gym to hear Palihapitiya speak.
The club’s Co-President, sophomore Ariya Zaheri, planned the event. “Getting Chamath to come here was a long process. It started around May 2, and it was an amazing experience,” Zaheri said.
Palihapitiya spoke for about 45 minutes about his upbringing, investing tips, and risk-taking, before opening up to answer student questions. “I was kind of disappointed in the students asking such stupid and trivial questions, like, do you know Epstein and whatever. I just thought that we should have treated him with more respect,” junior Max Fartharajan said.
“The students asked very trivial questions, such as, ‘Do you have a car collection?’ Which didn’t actually really use his expertise and knowledge in the ways that we should have,” junior Robert Lennihan said.
Palihapitiya grew up in Canada after immigrating from Sri Lanka at age 5. He worked at Burger King at 14 to help his parents pay for bus passes, then moved to California, eventually joining Facebook at 31. In 2011, Palihapitiya left Facebook to start his own company, Social Capital. “It was inspiring to hear his story about how he migrated to Canada from Sri Lanka and then was able to kind of climb the social ladder and make billions,” sophomore Ari Agarwal said.
“You must live the life of risk-taking. That is so exciting. It’s exciting to try things and fail,” Palihapitiya said during his talk.
Many students appreciated the opportunity to talk to the Silicon Valley billionaire. “I thought it was pretty cool to hear a lot of insight from someone so successful,” Fartharajan said.
However, not all students were as thrilled to have the outspoken billionaire speak at M-A. “Our school’s administration has decided that money is more important than M-A’s school mission,” senior Walter Standifer said. Standifer argued the District should have been more involved in vetting the visit, which it did not formally or directly approve.
In 2022, on his All-In Podcast, Palihapitiya said that “nobody cares” about the Chinese ethnic cleansing of the Uyghur population, prompting the Golden State Warriors to release a statement clarifying that he was a limited investor whose views “certainly don’t reflect those of our organization.”
Critics have faulted Palihapitiya for promoting SPAC deals that later collapsed, many by more than 90%. “Many of his once-hyped deals collapsed by more than 90%, leaving everyday investors with heavy losses,” one Finbold article stated.
“I think that anyone you bring is going to be controversial, because we are at such a big school. But him specifically, I think he handled it with grace and tried not to get into those controversial topics so people wouldn’t be offended,” Agarwal said.
The investment club hopes to bring in another famous investor next semester.
*Nalin Malhotra is a journalist for the M-A Chronicle
