Chamath Palihapitiya, the billionaire venture capitalist and All-In podcast co-host, announced Monday that his AI coding startup 8090 Labs has closed a massive $135 million Series A round. The funding values the company at a reported $900 million post-money, placing it among the most heavily capitalized early-stage AI startups in 2026.
Salesforce Ventures led the round, joined by Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, David Sacks’ Craft Ventures, and fellow All-In personalities David Friedberg and Jason Calacanis. Angel investors included Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo — a who’s-who of tech elite that speaks to Palihapitiya’s deep network in Silicon Valley.
Founded in January 2024, 8090 Labs built Software Factory, an AI coding agent designed for corporate engineering teams rather than solo developers. The product aims to solve a specific pain point in the enterprise: AI-generated code that looks good in demos but doesn’t hold up under production loads. Software Factory includes audit trails, compliance guardrails, and integration hooks that large organizations require before letting AI write shipping code.
“Since I left Facebook, I was waiting for a moment like this to return to a full-time operating role,” Palihapitiya wrote on X. “I am convinced that what we are building now is even more important, so there was no decision to make except to be all in.” He said the current AI wave reminds him of the early social media era during his time as a Facebook executive, long before it became Meta.
Palihapitiya also announced he’ll lead the company as CEO rather than remaining a board observer. It’s a notable shift for an investor known primarily as a check-writer — he’s betting his reputation as an operator on 8090 Labs’ ability to carve out a slice of the enterprise AI coding market, currently crowded with players like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Glean.
The big question is whether enterprise buyers will embrace a specialized AI coding agent tuned for production-grade work, or whether the incumbents with existing developer ecosystems will maintain their grip. With $135 million in the bank and a founder-CEO with a proven track record, 8090 Labs has the runway to find out.
Source: TechCrunch
