Vinod Khosla is an entrepreneurship zealot, grounded technology possibilist, believer in the power of ideas, and passionate about sustainability & impact. An entrepreneur, investor, and student of technology, he is the founder of Khosla Ventures, focused on impactful technology investments in software, AI, robotics, 3D printing, healthcare, energy & sustainability.
Mr. Khosla was a co-founder of Daisy Systems and founding CEO of Sun Microsystems, the pioneering distributed computing and Java company, where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors. Khosla helped incubate Juniper Networks in 1995–1996 with founder Pradeep Sindhu, backing the development of high-speed TCP/IP routers for public networks at a time when major telecommunications companies were pursuing ATM for their network infrastructure.
One of Mr. Khosla's passions is mentoring entrepreneurs, assisting them as they build technology-based businesses, a practice he calls ‘venture assistance.’ Mr. Khosla is driven by the desire to make a positive impact through using technology to reinvent societal infrastructure and multiply resources. Vinod holds a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from IIT, New Delhi, a Master's in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He has been described by The Information as one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists. He was an early signatory to the Giving Pledge.
In 2026, Khosla was ranked No. 10 in the Forbes 250 list of America's Greatest Innovators. Also in 2026, he was ranked 14th on Forbes' inaugural 250: America's Most Successful Living Immigrants list. Khosla was No. 1 on the 2026 Forbes Midas List of venture investors and on the inaugural list in 2001. In June 2024, Khosla was featured on the cover of Forbes as part of the magazine's The Epic Battle for AI's Future issue. In September 2024, he was named to Time's TIME100 AI list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence and was featured on the issue's cover. In 2001, Red Herring called him "The No. 1 VC on the Planet", noting Khosla created six jobs every day from 1976-2001.
He has numerous publications including Will Autonomous AI Exceed AI-Aided Physicians as the Best Medical Care? [JAMA], AI: Dystopia or Utopia?, Vinod Khosla on how the anti-green agenda could help climate tech [The Economist], Is the world ready for the transformational power of fusion? [World Economic Forum], "20 Percent Doctor Included" & Dr. Algorithm, Do We Need Doctors or Algorithms? [TechCrunch] and Reinventing Societal Infrastructure with Technology and Vinod Khosla says rushing to meet carbon-reduction targets by 2030 may hinder what can be achieved by 2050 [The Economist]. In a Financial Times op-ed, Khosla has called for revamping the tax code which favors the rich against normal labor especially when AI is also favoring the capital ownership versus labor : We will need a new tax code for the wealth AI creates. In 2024, he shared lessons from his entrepreneurial and investing career in The Generalist’s four-part “Letters to a Young Founder” series. That year, he also presented “Plausible Tomorrows,” outlining how technology and entrepreneurs will shape the future.
His investments include early bets on OpenAI, Block, Stripe, Affirm, DoorDash, Instacart, Commonwealth Fusion, GitLab, QuantumScape, and Rocket Lab. In 2019, Khosla Ventures became the first venture investor in OpenAI. Here is a three-minute video featuring over 80 companies in the Khosla Ventures portfolio.
In 1980 he married Neeru Khosla, his girlfriend since he was 16. They have four children: Nina Khosla (38), Anu Khosla (36), Vani Khosla (34) and Neal Khosla (33). They have lived at the same residence since 1986. He is a registered Independent and has donated to a mix of Democrats and Republicans and supports politicians principally based on their climate policies.
