विनोद खोसला Vinod Khosla
Vinod Khosla was born in 1955 and raised in New Delhi. He co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 as its founding CEO and spent nearly two decades as a general partner at Kleiner Perkins. He founded Khosla Ventures in 2004 and in 2019 it became the first venture investor in OpenAI.
Curated by Nikhil Sharma: an IIT Delhi engineer who co-founded Sun Microsystems and became one of the world’s most consequential tech investors. He argues openly that AI can give every Indian a free doctor and tutor and he puts his own money behind bets most investors avoid.
- 1982 Sun Microsystems: Co-founded and served as founding CEO
- 2004 Khosla Ventures: Founded his own firm in Menlo Park
- $50m First venture cheque into OpenAI: Written in 2019. His largest initial bet in 40 years
- No. 1 Forbes Midas List 2026: Ranked top venture investor
The facts
- Born
- 28 January 1955 in Pune. Raised in New Delhi. His father was an Indian Army officer (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla)
- Education
- BTech electrical engineering IIT Delhi. MS biomedical engineering Carnegie Mellon. MBA Stanford (1980) (Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla)
- Known for
- Co-founder and founding CEO of Sun Microsystems (1982) (Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla)
- Kleiner Perkins
- General partner from 1986. Moved to part-time in 2004 and later left (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla)
- Firm
- Founder of Khosla Ventures (2004). Menlo Park, California (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla)
- Notable bets
- Juniper Networks. Cerent. OpenAI (first venture investor in 2019). Stripe. DoorDash (Seattle Seahawks: Vinod Khosla)
- Net worth
- $11.4 billion (Forbes estimate as of 4 September 2026) (Forbes: America’s Richest Sports Team Owners 2026)
- Family
- Married Neeru Khosla in 1980. Four children. Neeru co-founded the CK-12 Foundation (Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla)
- Sport
- Chair of the Seattle Seahawks. NFL owners approved the family’s purchase on 26 August 2026 (Seattle Seahawks: Vinod Khosla)
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