Churchill Capital Corp. founder Michael Klein is raising $1 billion for a new SPAC

• Michael Klein is raising money for his eighth SPAC alongside Y Combinator's Sam Altman.
• The pair hope to raise $1 billion by offering 100 million units at $10 each.
• Altc Acquistion Corp. isn't looking for "any specific business combination targets."

Churchill Capital Corp. founder Michael Klein is looking to raise $1 billion for his eighth special purpose acquisition company, according to an S-1 regulatory filing from the SEC.

Klein's Altc Acquisition Corp. plans to raise $1.0 billion by offering 100 million units at $10 each. The units contain one common share and one-sixth of a warrant share which is exercisable at $11.50.

Altc would hold a $1.3 billion valuation if the proposed deal goes through as-is. The SPAC isn't targeting "any specific business combination target" and its common stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "ALCC."

Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America are the joint book-runners for the deal.

The former Citigroup banker Michael Klein has raised billions of dollars for seven SPACs over the past two years as a leader in the recent SPAC boom.

SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are more popular than ever. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, $166 billion in SPAC merger deals were completeled, more than in all of 2020.

The rise in SPACs, along with poor returns seen from the blank check firms after going public, have caused short-sellers to triple their bets against SPACs in recent weeks.

Klein's fourth blank check firm, Churchill Capital Corp. IV, illustrates the appeal of SPACs to short sellers.

CCIV's stock shot up after rumors of a merger deal with the electric-vehicle maker Lucid Motors were reported on Jan 11. However, once the deal with Lucid finally went through, shares of CCIV crashed as investors balked at the combined entities' valuation. The stock was down over 50% less than a week after the deal to acquire Lucid was officially announced.

Not long after CCIV plummeted following the Lucid deal, Klein raised $1.68 billion for his sixth and seventh SPACs.

Now Klein is joining forces with Y Combinator's Sam Altman to raise money for another blank check firm.

Altman is well known for co-founding OpenAI and for his time at the Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator, which helped companies like Airbnb and Dropbox Inc., among others, get their start.

He adds his name to a growing list of investors, hedge fund managers, and even celebrities moving into SPACs.