Chamath Palihapitiya, best known for his venture capital firm Social Capital and the All-In podcast, announced Monday that the AI coding startup he founded raised a sizable Series A.
The company, 8090 Labs, closed a $135 million round led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, David Sacks’ Craft Ventures, David Friedberg’s The Production Board, and Jason Calacanis’ Launch, as well as angel investors such as Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.
Palihapitiya founded 8090 Labs in January 2024 to offer an AI coding agent specifically for corporate programming teams. Its product, Software Factory, helps corporate coders use AI to create production-quality software, not just vibration-coded prototypes, with all the controls companies need, like audit trails, the company promises.
With the increase, Palihapitiya also announced in X who will lead the startup as CEO, rather than simply serving as a board member.
He said the current AI rush feels like the rise of social media in his career as an early Facebook executive, long before it became Meta. “Since I left Facebook, I have been waiting for a moment like this to return to a full-time operational role,” he wrote. “I am convinced that what we are building now is even more important, so there was no other decision to make except to be fully committed.”
