Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya turned 50 recently, and apparently, when you're connected enough, even the President of the United States remembers your birthday. Palihapitiya revealed that President Donald Trump sent him a personal birthday letter, but the real story is how it came about: his son, Braden, called in a favor after spending the summer interning at the White House.
"I got a birthday letter from the big man," Palihapitiya said on a recent episode of the All-In podcast. "If you would ask my parents, 50 years later, you're going to have a kid that gets a letter from the then-sitting President of the United States, they would have thought absolutely not possible."
According to Palihapitiya, his son used the "political capital" he built during the internship to make the request. "Obviously I want to thank POTUS for sending me the letter, but I really want to thank my son," he said.
The podcast episode featured a familiar crew: internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, David Sacks (co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology), and entrepreneur and investor David Friedberg. When Palihapitiya shared the news, Sacks was impressed, noting that "it takes time out of the president's schedule to sign things."
The birthday letter is a fitting capstone to a remarkable political journey for Palihapitiya. The Sri Lankan-born investor was once a Democratic donor, but he's now firmly in the Trump camp. In June 2024, he co-hosted a Trump fundraiser in San Francisco with Sacks, where VIP tickets started at $50,000 and a host-committee spot went for $300,000. At a later $300,000-per-person dinner, Palihapitiya was among the guests as Trump polled attendees on his choice of running mate. Palihapitiya and Sacks both backed now-Vice President JD Vance.
His political evolution has been swift and public. In June 2020, he donated $750,000 to Democrats to protest Trump's actions in office. But by September 2024, he was telling Joe Rogan that the media was "really tilted" against Trump and that he found Trump more approachable in person than expected. In July, he told CNBC he had been "totally wrong" about Trump, calling him "fantastic" after meeting him.
These days, Palihapitiya is a vocal supporter of the president's tech and economic policies. The birthday letter is a personal touch, but it also underscores how far he's come from his Democratic donor days. It's a reminder that in politics, as in business, relationships matter, and sometimes they even get you a birthday card from the Oval Office.
