Chamath Lures Degens Back Into Shark-Infested Waters With New “Aligned Incentives” SPAC Pitch

Does your investment strategy involve “trusting guys who once pitched space tourism tickets on CNBC”? 

If you nodded your head in a resounding “yes, that’s me!” then perfect… because Chamath Palihapitiya (aka the SPAC King) is back, baby. And this time, he’s teaming up with Tom Lee for another blank-check disaster adventure.

After rug-pulling half of Twitter during the COVID SPAC boom, Chamath has cooked up a fresh $300 million raise for his latest creation, American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp. A (no, that’s not a parody). The stock immediately popped 8.5% because apparently investors still have a taste for deja vu scams… I mean, speculative growth vehicles.

Not to be outdone, Tom Lee (the guy best known for predicting Bitcoin’s price on cable news until producers politely stopped inviting him) whipped together $250 million for FutureCrest Acquisition Corp. It jumped 5.5% on debut. Talk about a short memory… investors piled in like it’s 2021 all over again, back when everyone thought Virgin Galactic was going to make space Uber and Clover Health was going to cure healthcare in style.

(Source: Cision)

Chamath says his new SPAC will hunt in artificial intelligence (everyone’s favorite bubble), defense (the Pentagon writes blank checks too), energy (no, not flying taxis this time… we think), and decentralized finance (because what could possibly go wrong there?). Lee’s flavor is similar: AI, crypto, fintech. If it’s risky enough to get Logan and Jake Paul on board, it’s a greenlight.

If you’re not familiar with the guy, or just started investing… Chamath was the original pandemic-era SPAC hype man. He launched over 10 vehicles, merging with darlings like SoFi (which tripled) and disasters like Virgin Galactic (down 98%). Out of his six completed deals, five sh*t the bed. And that’s being generous. He even admitted in a recent interview: “Stay away from my new SPAC or risk losing everything.” Which is honestly the most honest financial advice you’ll ever get from a billionaire.

So why are SPACs suddenly back from the dead? Because retail investors apparently crave pain like it’s a subscription service. After more than 300 blank checks got body-bagged in 2022, you’d think people would’ve learned. Instead, 2025 has already hacked up 100 new SPACs raising $19.3 billion… more than 2023 and 2024 combined. The IPO market’s frozen solid, crypto is “hot” again (until it isn’t), and Trump tariffs turned volatility into a full-time job. Put it all together and you’ve got the perfect petri dish for speculative crap shoots.

Chamath seems to have found a new shade of lipstick for this SPAC pig… His salespitch this time is that he only gets paid if the stock clears $15, $17.50, and $20. Sounds noble, like he’s some kind of selfless fiduciary monk. Reality check: he still scooped his sponsor shares for pennies on the dollar, so the “risk” for him is about as real as a Virgin Galactic launch schedule.

I’ll leave you with this… If you’re throwing chips at American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp., you’re basically betting that Chamath 2.0 won’t relapse into his old tricks… like the time he swore Clover Health was a generational disruptor and it wound with SEC investigation stuck in meme-stock purgatory. The guy has a pattern: he promises you the cure for cancer, Mars vacations, and a fintech utopia… and then hands you nothing but Ivy League-level coursework in how to become the proud owner of a permanent bag.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Uber as mentioned in the article.