Aug 19 (Reuters) - Venture investor Chamath

Palihapitiya, dubbed Wall Street's "SPAC king" for his

high-profile blank-check deals, is set to take his latest

special purpose acquisition vehicle public, marking his return

to the market after several years.

American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp, chaired by

Palihapitiya, will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the

ticker 'AEXA', a filing showed late on Monday. The SPAC plans to

raise $250 million to target companies in artificial

intelligence, energy, decentralized finance and defense sectors.

A SPAC is a shell firm that raises money through an IPO to

merge with a private business and take it public, offering

companies an alternative route to the market that bypasses the

longer and more costly traditional IPO process.

SPAC deals hit record levels in 2020 and 2021, before

activity slowed sharply in the following years as regulatory

scrutiny increased and investors soured on the once-popular

vehicle.

During the peak, several Wall Street heavyweights, including

billionaire investors Bill Ackman and Michael Klein, joined

Palihapitiya in betting on SPACs as the next big trend in the

listings market.

Despite backing from big-name investors, many SPACs failed

to secure merger targets, while others completed deals with

heavy redemptions or saw their shares plunge after debut.

But Palihapitiya strongly believes in the vehicle. "When I

raised my first SPAC in 2017, I wanted to help correct an

increasingly unstable balance between the private and public

markets," he said in a letter to investors.

"While SPACs are not the solution for every issue in the IPO

process, I continue to believe that they have an important piece

to play in capital formation - and especially now."

SoFi Technologies ( SOFI ) is among Palihapitiya's most

successful bets, with the consumer lender now valued at nearly

$29 billion. In January 2021, it had agreed to go public in a

blank-check deal valued at around $8.65 billion.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini

Ganguli)