Chamath Palihapitiya raises $135M Series A for his AI programming startup, takes over as CEO

Chamath Palihapitiya, best known for his venture capital firm Social Capital and podcast All-In, announced Monday that the AI ​​programming startup he founded has achieved a successful Series A.

The company, 8090 Labs, has closed a $135 million round led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, David Sacks’ Craft Ventures, fellow All-In hosts and “close friends” The Production Board and David Friedberg’s Jason Calacanis, as well as angel investors like Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.

Palihapitiya founded 8090 Labs in January 2024 to provide an AI coding agent specifically for enterprise programming teams. Its product, Software Factory, helps enterprise programmers use AI to build production-quality software, not just coded prototypes, with all the controls organizations need, such as audit trails, the company promises.

With the increase, Palihapitiya also announced On X He will lead the startup as CEO, rather than just serving as a board member.

He said today’s 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’ve 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 more important, so there was no decision to make but to go all-in.”