Chamath Palihapitiya raises $135M Series A for his AI coding startup, takes CEO role
Notable investor Chamath Palihapitiya announced that his AI coding startup 8090 Labs has closed a $135 million Series A round led by Salesforce Ventures, and that he will assume the role of CEO.
Palihapitiya, best known for his venture capital firm Social Capital and the All-In podcast, made the announcement on Monday. The company, 8090 Labs, was founded in January 2024 to offer an AI coding agent specifically for corporate programming teams. Its product, Software Factory, helps corporate developers use AI to build production-quality software with enterprise controls like audit trails.
The round was led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, David Sacks’ Craft Ventures, as well as fellow All-In hosts and their investment funds. Angel investors included Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.
With this raise, Palihapitiya also announced on X that he will lead the startup as CEO, rather than serving only as a board member. He said the current AI rush feels like the rise of social media during his early career at Facebook. "Since I left Facebook, I was waiting for a moment like this to return to a full-time operating role," he wrote. "I am convinced that what we are building now is even more important, so there was no decision to make except to be all in."
