More companies went public via special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, during 2020 and 2021 than in all previous years combined. Also known as blank-check companies, SPACs brought many high-profile companies to the public markets, including Lucid Motors (NASDAQ: LCID) and DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG), as well as many early-stage businesses that likely wouldn't have gone public without the SPAC route.

During this massive SPAC boom, no sponsor of blank-check companies has received more attention than Chamath Palihapitiya.

Palihapitiya is widely credited with starting the SPAC boom when he took Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) public in 2019. Other Palihapitiya-backed SPACs were responsible for bringing Opendoor (NASDAQ: OPEN), Clover Health (NASDAQ: CLOV), SoFi (NASDAQ: SOFI), ProKidney (NASDAQ: PROK), and Akili Health (NASDAQ: AKLI) public. And that's not to mention the numerous SPACs Palihapitiya didn't sponsor but funded through private investment rounds.

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Source Fool.com