AFRM Chief Executive

What Max Levchin says in public, and what their own SEC filings show they own.

Max Levchin

Founder & CEO · Affirm Holdings, Inc.

Co-founded PayPal; founded Affirm in 2012 to reinvent consumer credit with transparent, no-late-fee financing.

maboroshi

What they own

Ownership

Skin in the game

Level 4Founder-Anchor

Levchin owns about 8% of Affirm Holdings, Inc., worth $1.85B at the last close — founder-owned since 2012.

Age: 51
Founded: 2012
SEC filings: 86

Stake 27.2M reported shares ≈ 7.8% of shares outstanding — no 13G on file, so an estimate 26/35

Founder Founder — on the cap table from day one 15/15

Tenure In the chair since Jan 2012 — 14 years 9/10

Track record 3 companies sold or taken public · 2 public board seats before this chair 15/15

Direction Exercise-and-sell — 1.3M shares ($111.9M) sold, all covered by option exercises; the underlying stake is flat 4/15

Discipline 1 late Form 4 in 86 filings 9/10

Track record · other companies

1998–02PayPal · co-founder, CTOsold to eBay · $1.5B
2005–10Slide · founder, CEOsold to Google · $182M
2004–15Yelp · co-founder, chairmanlisted 2012
2011–HVF · Glow · founderprivate
2012–15Yahoo · directorboard
2024–The Coca-Cola Company · directorboard

Score = stake band (35) + founder (15) + tenure (10) + track record (15) + 12-month direction (−10…15) + filing discipline (10). Every input links to a filing or to the career file; the bands are ours.

Reported · Forms 3, 4, 5 27.2M Every lot on the person's own filings, as of Jan 5, 2026

Last open-market trade Sale · $53.7M Jan 5, 2026 · 666,666 shares at $80.62 avg · under a 10b5-1 plan

Paper trail 1 late filing Form 4 covering a 2013-09-16 conversion of a derivative in YELP INC was filed 2013-09-19, 3 business days later; Section 16 allows two.

Reported Affirm Holdings, Inc. shares Forms 3, 4 and 5 · as of 2026-01-05

Dots mark the months the activity below moved the line. Hover one for the filing.

How the stake is held

Security	Held via	Shares
Class B Common Stock	Direct	15,397,650
Class B Common Stock	2012 MRL Investments LLC	10,352,528
Class A Common Stock	Levchin 2012 Irrevocable Trust	735,294
Class B Common Stock	Levchin 2012 Irrevocable Trust	735,294
Reported as of 2026-01-05		27,220,766

Held directly: 57%
Vehicles: 2 trusts or entities
Share classes: 2
Last filing: Jan 7, 2026

Activity · last 12 months 4 events folded from 8 filing lines · Every filing on EDGAR ↗

Date	Type	What happened	Shares	Price	Value	Note
Jan 5, 2026	Exercise	Option or RSU conversion · Class A Common Stock	+666,666	$49.00	$32.7M
Jan 5, 2026	Sale	Open-market sale across 2 lots, $80.52–$81.12 · Class A Common Stock	−666,666	$80.62 avg	$53.7M	under a 10b5-1 plan
Sep 22, 2025	Exercise	Option or RSU conversion · Class A Common Stock	+651,713	$49.00	$31.9M
Sep 22, 2025	Sale	Open-market sale across 4 lots, $88.46–$90.98 · Class A Common Stock	−651,713	$89.27 avg	$58.2M	under a 10b5-1 plan

Every issuer Max Levchin files as an insider of

Company	Role	Reported	Beneficial	% of class
AFRM Affirm Holdings, Inc. This page	Chief Executive Officer	27M 2026-01-05	—	—
YELP YELP INC	Director	3,513,194 2016-09-22	—	—
YHOO YAHOO INC	Director	29,106 2015-09-30	—	—
KO COCA COLA CO	Director	14,267 2026-04-01	—	—

Reported is every lot on the person's own Forms 3, 4 and 5 — direct and through trusts. Beneficial is the figure stated on the latest Schedule 13D/G cover page, which can exclude shares the person disclaims and include options exercisable within 60 days, so the two are never added together.

Paper trail

Form 144 Form 144 filed 2026-01-05 announces an intended sale. Filing ↗
Form 144 Form 144 filed 2025-09-22 announces an intended sale. Filing ↗
Late Form 4 covering a 2013-09-16 conversion of a derivative in YELP INC was filed 2013-09-19, 3 business days later; Section 16 allows two. Filing ↗
Sale 2026-01: sold 666,666 Affirm Holdings, Inc. shares for $53,747,814, under a 10b5-1 plan (1 filing). Filing ↗
Sale 2025-09: sold 651,713 Affirm Holdings, Inc. shares for $58,175,590, under a 10b5-1 plan (1 filing). Filing ↗

86 filings under CIK 0001539853 · captured 2026-09-04 · All filings on EDGAR ↗

On the record with shareholders

Earnings calls

Q4 FY2026 Aug 27, 2026 Levchin keeps prepared remarks to a minute by design and spends the call in Q&A. His one framing sentence was that the June quarter was Affirm's most profitable ever even setting the tax-allowance release aside, and he announced Michael Linford's promotion to President and Pat Suh's to SVP and GM of Global Markets. On credit he declined the macro read entirely, arguing that Affirm underwrites roughly 100 million individual decisions a quarter and therefore controls its own credit outcome rather than inheriting the consumer's. Read the call · 2 quotes →

In their own words

Podcasts, interviews & articles

10 recorded appearances

2026

Podcast a16z Podcast · Sep 3, 2026 · 59 min

Why AI Agents Could Finally Reinvent the Credit Card

Levchin, with a16z's Alex Rampell, traces Affirm from the “pajama problem” and “pay with your identity” to the Beautylish and mattress merchants where installments lifted conversion ~30%. He separates real 0% financing (merchant-funded) from the fake kind, argues Affirm now creates demand rather than just satisfying it, and says he is bullish on agentic payments — agents transacting on rails built for them — but not on agents choosing what people buy.

Watch or read →

Semafor

Interview Semafor · Jul 30, 2026

Why Max Levchin wants Affirm to act like your smarter older sister

Levchin describes the product philosophy he wants Affirm to embody: nudging consumers away from debt they cannot service rather than maximising credit extended.

Watch or read →

Podcast The Tim Ferriss Show · Jun 10, 2026 · 1h 47m

The Path from The Soviet Union to Building Multi-Billion Dollar Companies — Max Levchin

Wide-ranging episode (#869) on his Soviet childhood, the founding of PayPal and Affirm, and an extended argument comparing real-world socialism with capitalism drawn from his own family's experience.

Watch or read →

CNBC

Interview CNBC · Jun 8, 2026 · 2 min

Affirm CEO Max Levchin on America's secret to success

Short segment in which Levchin, an immigrant founder, ties US economic outperformance to its openness to outsiders starting companies.

Watch or read →

Podcast Fintech Leaders · May 26, 2026 · 55 min

Max Levchin - Building Affirm, PayPal, and Why He Only Starts Network Businesses

Levchin explains his rule of only founding businesses with network effects, and walks through what he carried over from PayPal's risk and fraud work into Affirm's underwriting.

Watch or read →

CNBC Mad Money

Interview CNBC Mad Money · May 8, 2026

Affirm CEO Max Levchin goes one-on-one with Jim Cramer

Post-results conversation on consumer credit quality, merchant growth and Affirm's willingness to cap growth at whatever its risk models allow.

Watch or read →

Podcast Sourcery with Molly O'Shea · Apr 13, 2026 · 1h 21m

Max Levchin: "The Net IQ of the World Is About to Go Up 50 Points"

Levchin argues AI will act as a broad cognitive multiplier across the workforce, and talks through surviving failure and building companies through economic regime changes.

Watch or read →