In all the recriminations over the GameStop trading boomlet last month, billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya emerged as a conquering hero. On Twitter and in elite media, he was depicted as the rare swashbuckling, tech age investor with the integrity to side with those demanding justice for rapacious short sellers and hedge fund vultures. The mythmaking and the euphoric enthusiasm crescendoed with him floating the idea of a run for governor of America’s largest state.

Palihapitiya was making an opportunity out of American politics’ age-old dream of an enlightened capitalist-turned-populist parachuting in to bridge the partisan divide and rescue the country. But Palihapitiya is not a typical man of the people: beneath the public image is a paradigmatic tech industry oligarch promoting anti-government ideology, repackaged and updated for the social media age.

Whether or not he ends up running for public office — he’s said he’s “not ready” to run for governor — Palihapitiya represents a counter to the resurgent progressive wing of the Democratic Party: a corporate-friendly Third Way centrist, with a sprinkle of social justice rhetoric but also an intense devotion to libertarian free-market triumphalism.