विनोद खोसला Vinod Khosla

Life and career

  1. 1955 · Born into an army family. Born on 28 January 1955 in Pune and raised in New Delhi. His father was an officer in the Indian Army. The family had no business or technology connections. (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla · The Global Indian (2026))
  2. 1971 · Intel sparks a dream at IIT Delhi. As a teenager he read about the founding of Intel and wanted to start a technology company. He studied electrical engineering at IIT Delhi from 1971 to 1976. (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla · The Global Indian (2026))
  3. 1976 · To America on a scholarship. At 21 he moved to the United States on a full scholarship. He earned a master’s in biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon. (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla · Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla)
  4. 1980 · Stanford MBA and Daisy Systems. Stanford rejected him twice before admitting him. He took his MBA in 1980 and married Neeru the same year. He then became the first full-time founder and CFO of Daisy Systems an electronic design automation company. (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla · Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla)
  5. 1982 · Co-founds Sun Microsystems. He wrote the original Sun business plan dated 17 May 1982. He co-founded Sun with Andy Bechtolsheim and Scott McNealy and served as founding CEO. Bill Joy joined later as a co-founder. (Khosla Ventures: Sun Microsystems Business Plan · Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla · Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla)
  6. 1986 · Joins Kleiner Perkins. He became a general partner at Kleiner Perkins. Red Herring later called him “The No. 1 VC on the Planet” in 2001. (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla · Stanford eCorner: Vinod Khosla · Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla)
  7. 1996 · Juniper and Cerent. He helped incubate Juniper Networks in 1995 and 1996 with founder Pradeep Sindhu. Kleiner’s roughly $3 million in Juniper returned about $7 billion. He incubated Cerent in 1996. Cisco bought Cerent in 1999 when Kleiner’s roughly $8 million stake was worth about $2.4 billion. (Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla · Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla · Khosla Ventures: The Generalist interview)
  8. 2004 · Founds Khosla Ventures. He founded Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park. It backed software, AI, robotics, health and energy companies and became an early investor in Square, DoorDash, Instacart, Stripe and Affirm. (Wikipedia: Vinod Khosla · Stanford eCorner: Vinod Khosla · Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla)
  9. 2008 · Buys the Martins Beach property. He bought an 89-acre coastal property south of Half Moon Bay for $32.5 million. Closing the only road to the beach started a public-access fight that ran for more than a decade. (KQED (6 January 2020))
  10. 2010 · Profits recycled into poverty ventures. In 2010 he seeded a $117 million fund with gains from SKS Microfinance to back ventures that fight poverty and also aim to profit. In 2011 he and Neeru signed the Giving Pledge. Neeru had co-founded the CK-12 Foundation in 2007 to offer free K-12 FlexBooks. (NextBillion (12 October 2010) · The Giving Pledge: Vinod and Neeru Khosla · Wikipedia: CK-12 Foundation)
  11. 2014 · Cleantech under fire. In January 2014 he published an open letter rebutting a 60 Minutes report on a cleantech crash. In November 2014 KiOR his biofuel bet filed for bankruptcy. (Fortune (14 January 2014) · Fortune: A Biofuel Dream Gone Bad (2015))
  12. 2019 · First venture investor in OpenAI. Khosla Ventures wrote a $50 million cheque to OpenAI. He called it his largest initial investment by a factor of two in 40 years. In 2023 he backed Sam Altman’s return as CEO. (Fortune (4 December 2023) · Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla · TIME100 AI 2024)
  13. 2024 · TED stage and a manifesto on AI. He gave 12 predictions for technology at TED2024. In September he published AI: Dystopia or Utopia? and TIME named him to its TIME100 AI list. (TED: 12 predictions for the future of technology · Khosla Ventures: AI: Dystopia or Utopia? (2024) · TIME100 AI 2024)
  14. 2026 · India AI summit and the Seahawks. In February he spoke at the India AI Impact Summit and with Sam Altman at IIT Delhi. Forbes ranked him No. 1 on its Midas List. In August NFL owners unanimously approved his family’s $9.612 billion purchase of the Seattle Seahawks. (Business Standard (17 February 2026) · Khosla Ventures: Vinod Khosla · OPB / AP (26 August 2026))

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