Vinod Khosla
VCFounder, Khosla Ventures
Khosla Ventures founder, Sun Microsystems co-founder, deep tech bets
Background
Vinod Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 as founding CEO, pioneering open systems and commercial RISC processors, before joining Kleiner Perkins as a general partner in 1986. In 2004, he founded Khosla Ventures to pursue technology-based economic disruption across both for-profit and social impact investments. The firm manages approximately $15 billion and is known for backing capital-intensive, science-heavy bets in climate, healthcare, and deep tech with tolerance for high failure rates in exchange for potential outsized returns. Khosla Ventures was the first venture capital firm to invest in OpenAI in 2019 and has backed companies including Impossible Foods, DoorDash, Instacart, Stripe, and Affirm. Khosla holds degrees from IIT New Delhi, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford GSB.
Investment Thesis
Seeks 'black swan' contrarian opportunities in technology-based economic disruption; believes technology and innovation can solve the world's largest problems and tolerates high failure rates in exchange for backing moonshot bets in frontier technology, climate, and healthcare.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: $500K–$50M+ (seed through growth)
Sectors
Based in: Global, primarily United States (North America)
Notable Investments
OpenAI
First VC investor in 2018; led early rounds
Impossible Foods
Early investor; plant-based meat company
DoorDash
Invested 2013; IPO 2020 at $72B valuation
Stripe
Portfolio company; global payments infrastructure
Affirm
Series A 2013; BNPL fintech; IPO 2021 at $24B
Instacart
Invested 2012; online grocery delivery; IPO 2023
Okta
Series B 2011; identity and access management; IPO 2017
Guardant Health
Series B 2014; liquid biopsy for cancer detection; IPO 2018