As Elon Musk chose to skip the White House dinner with US President Donald Trump and other fellow tech CEOs on Thursday night, other faces rose to prominence. Industry behemoths backing the biggest artificial intelligence and tech firms, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and OpenAI’s Sam Altman were among the dozen notable executive sharing the same space as the MAGA leader in the State Dining Room ahead of the dinner scheduled to take place in the Rose Garden.

At least 5 Indian-origin tech moguls were on the invite list – Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive, Palantir exec Shyam Sankar and Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra. Yet another entrepreneur making headlines due to his presence at the White House was Chamath Palihapitiya.

Who is Chamath Palihapitiya?

The founder-CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital Chamath Palihapitiya sat just seats away from President Trump on Thursday. Part of the ‘All-In’ podcast, he was born in Sri Lanka, but grew up in Canada, according to his LinkedIn profile.

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Graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, he has previously held roles at The Mayfield Fund, AOL, and Winamp. But most notably, Chamath was an early member of Facebook’s senior executive team before founding Social Capital. Chamath celebrated his 49th birthday this week (September 3).

As of 2021, Palihapitiya’s net worth stood at $1.2 billion, according to Forbes. The Silicon Valley venture capital investor emigrated to Canada at the age of 6, according to the New York Times. Having spent his formative years there, he then followed his girlfriend to California after College, eventually landing in the Silicon Valley start-up scene in 2000.

Former Democrat contributor turns Trump supporter

In a 2020 tweet, he confirmed on X, formerly Twitter, that he was a naturalised US citizen despite his Sri Lankan roots and prior Canada ties. On his X profile, which boasts nearly 2 million followers, the co-host of the ‘All-In Podcast’ has emerged as a major Trump supporter and megadonor. Though now at the MAGA leader’s beck and call, the podcaster once used to be big-dollar contributor to Democrat causes.

Chamath, a basketball fan, is also a part-owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Having sat down for an interview on the ‘Flagrant’ podcast earlier this year, he admitted to having embraced the “lifelong Democrat” stance in the past. “I was a megadonor to the Democrats — you know, like, dinner-with-Obama level donor. OK? I couldn’t get a fucking phone call returned from the White House to save my life.”

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However, as he switched his path to being a Trump follower, he witnessed a swift change in how the White House treated him. Appreciating the Trump administration’s accessibility, he called it “totally different,” adding “There’s not a single person there you can’t get on the phone and talk to.” The same was evident this week as his presence at the White House gained traction online.

According to the Federal Election Commission’s records, Palihapitiya donated $300,000 directly to elect Trump in 2024. He even went on to co-host a fundraiser of Silicon Valley big-shots, which raised $12 million to support the MAGA leader’s re-election bid.

This is a developing story.