Virgin Galactic chairman and prolific venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya has stepped down from the company’s board, a month after he made widely criticized remarks on the plight of Uyghurs living in western China. Virgin Galactic distanced itself from his remarks at the time, but today’s announcement of his departure made no mention of them.
The spaceflight company announced Palihapitiya’s resignation in a statement on Friday morning detailing several board changes. It said Palihapitiya was leaving to “focus on other public company board commitments.” Evan Lovell, former chief investment officer at parent company Virgin Group, replaced him as interim chair with immediate effect.
Palihapitiya was a pivotal figure in taking Virgin Galactic, a space travel company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, public in 2019 via a SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company. A SPAC has no business operations and is formed only to raise capital through an initial public offering, capital that can then be used to buy out or merge with another company that is also trying to go public. Palihapitiya’s extensive investments in them gained him the nickname of “SPAC king” during the pandemic.
Palihapitiya had stayed on as the company’s inaugural chairman since it went public.
In the statement announcing Palihapitiya’s departure, Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said the company had “always known the time would come when [Palihapitiya] would shift his focus to new projects and pursuits.”
Virgin Galactic and Palihapitiya did not immediately respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.
Palihapitiya’s resignation comes barely a month after he made controversial and widely criticized comments on the persecution of ethnic Uyghurs in western China’s Xinjiang province.
“Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, okay?” Palihapitiya said on Jason Carlacas’s podcast in January. “Of all the things I care about, yes it is below my line.”
The Biden administration has formally classified the treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang as “widespread, state-sponsored forced labor” and “genocide.”
China’s repression of Uyghurs has increasingly come to light, notably with reports that over 1 million people were being detained in reeducation camps and some have even undergone forced sterilization.
The Biden administration said these “mass detention programs” were cause enough to warn U.S. companies that doing business in the region might violate international rights laws.
The Golden State Warriors, where Palihapitiya sits on the board and holds a stake that may be as large as 10%, quickly distanced themselves from him following the remarks.
“As a limited investor who has no day-to-day operating functions with the Warriors, Mr. Palihapitiya does not speak on behalf of our franchise, and his views certainly don’t reflect those of our organization,” the San Francisco NBA team said shortly after the controversy.
Virgin Galactic also distanced itself from Palihapitiya’s remarks.
“Chamath Palihapitiya’s comments do not reflect the views of Virgin Galactic and he does not speak on behalf of the company,” a spokesperson said at the time.
Also in the past month, Palihapitiya’s SPACs have been typically active, striking up a $2.6 billion merger deal and a $1 billion deal, both in late January.
Virgin Galactic has recently been going through a rebrand of its own, from announcing a new CEO in 2020 to changing its logo and now a reorganization of the company’s executive board.
Palihapitiya made his name by starting the highly influential tech VC firm Social Capital and as an early executive at Facebook. His lively Twitter feed and frequent podcast appearances have made Palihapitiya a social media personality during the pandemic, especially popular among finance aficionados. He also flirted with a run for California governor in early 2021.
Shares of the space travel company dropped 5% on Friday after the announcement of Palihapitiya’s departure.
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