SPAC King Chamath Palihapitiya On Facebook, Tesla And Bitcoin

Chamath Palihapitiya was part of the September Benzinga Boot Camp. In an interview with BlockFi's Zac Prince, Palihapitiya shared his thoughts on some of the market's biggest stocks.

Palihapitiya On Facebook: Palihapitiya is a former vice president at Facebook Inc FB and was part of the company’s original management team. When asked about what he would have changed in the early days of Facebook, Palihapitiya shared thoughts that would have made the company look entirely different.

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“I think we should have gone public a year or two earlier. Had we done that, we would have been forced to pay attention to the transition to mobile sooner,” he said. 

A decision to IPO sooner and focus on mobile could have made Facebook a third pillar in the mobile market with Apple AAPL and Alphabet GOOG GOOGL. Facebook would have a much different revenue makeup today, instead of relying mainly on advertising revenue, Palihapitiya said. 

“In 2014, I made a big decision to sell all my Facebook stock.”

See Also: Chamath Palihapitiya Talks SPACs At Benzinga Boot Camp: 'It Unlocks Access To Growth Companies'

Palihapitiya On Tesla: In 2016, Palihapitiya made a “fairly large” investment in Tesla TSLA.

Palihapitiya has been vocal about Tesla becoming a $1-trillion company and sees cars as only the first wave of growth.

“In my opinion, [Tesla] now is on a death march to being the largest company in the world. It will be on the scale of Apple, probably larger than Amazon,” he said.

The company’s growth objectives and its ability are the reasons it has such potential, Palihapitiya said.

Palihapitiya On Bitcoin: Palihapitiya started investing in bitcoin in 2012 and said he once bought $1 million of the digital currency based on a friend’s recommendation.

After more due diligence, he invested more.

He has since sold all of his individual bitcoins, choosing to now invest in cryptocurrency through the companies that own the coins. It's easier to manage shares instead of individual coins or wallets, Palihapitiya said.

In his view, cryptocurrency is a “really good place to be.”