CEO Says He Ghosted Wall Street, Then Turned $6B in Buybacks Into a Claimed $50B Payoff

A software CEO says he stopped calling investors entirely after his company's stock collapsed, then redirected that time into a stock buyback he now says returned more than eight times its cost. The account came on a recent episode of the All-In podcast, hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg. The guest, addressed on air only as "Adam," was described as running a company that went public in April 2021 with roughly $600 million in EBITDA — a common shorthand for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, used by investors to compare companies' underlying cash generation — and a market cap of about $28 billion.

By his account, the stock reached a $40 billion valuation before falling in 2022 to roughly $3.8 billion, even as EBITDA grew to $1 billion that year. He attributed the drop to the company's valuation multiple — the ratio investors pay per dollar of EBITDA — falling from what he called "fairly high" levels down to "sub-4 times." He also blamed a wave of COVID-era IPOs for crowding out attention from what he called "blue-chip investors."

Rather than continue investor outreach, Adam said he told his team, "I'm not going to talk to investors at all anymore. They're not buying our stock. It's a waste of time." Instead, he said the company redirected its cash toward repurchasing its own shares: "Let's become our best investor."

According to Adam, the company has since bought back roughly $6 billion of stock, retiring 20% to 25% of shares outstanding. He said that $6 billion stake was worth more than $50 billion "at peak" — a figure he offered without a specific date attached, and one that reflects a self-reported retrospective rather than an audited or independently verified return.

The episode also touched on internal strain during the downturn, with Adam describing fielding calls from worried family members while the stock traded far below its highs, and rolling out a performance stock plan to retain staff through the decline.

None of the figures — EBITDA, market cap, buyback totals or the $50 billion peak value — were independently confirmed in the source material beyond Adam's own account on the show.

Heard on All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg — Adam Foroughi, Applovin CEO: Surviving a 92% Drawdown, Ads as ML 1.0 & the $50B Game Ad Market (2026-09-20).