Social Capital AI Startup Deal Led Palihapitiya to Fire Partners
- The dramatic firings highlight unusual structure at firm
- Social Capital scrapped efforts to raise outside funding
Chamath Palihapitiya
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Venture capital firm Social Capital suddenly fired two of its partners after they tried to raise outside money for an artificial intelligence startup — an endeavor that provoked the ire of the firm’s leader, high-profile investor Chamath Palihapitiya.
After it fired Jay Zaveri and Ravi Tanuku on Sunday, the firm offered no details other than that high-wattage law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz had been hired just days earlier to investigate a “situation,” Bloomberg first reported.