Chamath Palihapitiya Takes CEO Seat at 8090 Labs After $135M Series A

8090 Labs has raised a $135 million Series A led by Salesforce Ventures — and the round comes with a headline-grabbing personnel change. Chamath Palihapitiya, previously a board member, is stepping in as chief executive, his first full-time operating job since he left Facebook.

"Since I left Facebook, I was waiting for a moment like this to return to a full-time operating role," Palihapitiya wrote on X, comparing the current AI momentum to the rise of social media he witnessed early in his Facebook career — and describing this opportunity as even more important.

A Heavyweight Cap Table

The round drew a roster of well-known names. Alongside Salesforce Ventures, participants include WndrCo, the firm founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg; David Sacks' Craft Ventures; David Friedberg's The Production Board; and Jason Calacanis' LAUNCH — reuniting much of the All-In podcast crew on a single cap table.

Angel investors include Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, Cliff Robbins, and Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo.

What Software Factory Does

Founded in January 2024, 8090 Labs builds Software Factory, an AI coding product aimed at enterprise programming teams. Rather than competing head-on with consumer coding assistants, the company is targeting the hardest end of the market: production-ready code for regulated industries.

Software Factory is designed to produce enterprise-grade software with the controls those buyers require — audit trails and governance features that let companies in regulated markets adopt AI-generated code without abandoning compliance requirements. That framing helps explain Salesforce Ventures' interest, given Salesforce's own push to sell AI tooling into large enterprises.

Why the CEO Move Matters

Palihapitiya has spent the years since Facebook as an investor — founding Social Capital, riding the SPAC wave, and co-hosting the All-In podcast. Taking an operating role again is a notable signal about where he thinks the AI opportunity sits: not in funding the wave from the sidelines, but in running one of the companies building it.

The AI coding market is among the most crowded in software, with incumbents and startups alike racing to automate development. 8090's bet is that the enterprise segment — where audit trails, controls, and regulatory compliance matter more than raw speed — remains underserved. With $135 million in fresh capital and a famous operator at the helm, the company now has the resources, and the attention, to test that thesis.