In 2024, Khosla publicly opposed California's SB 1047 AI safety bill, writing an opinion article in The Sacramento Bee arguing the bill could harm national security. He called the bill's author, Senator Scott Wiener, 'clueless about the real dangers of AI' and 'not qualified to have an opinion' on global national security issues. While Khosla supports AI safety research funding, he opposed legislative safety frameworks that could constrain AI development.
Khosla repeatedly stated that AI will be able to do 80% of 80% of all jobs by 2030, affecting roles from doctors to farm workers. Rather than dismissing the disruption, he advocated for Universal Basic Income and proposed the U.S. government take a 10% stake in all public corporations to redistribute wealth. He published 'AI: Dystopia or Utopia?' arguing that policy choices around UBI and wealth redistribution will determine whether AI benefits humanity. He acknowledged the 10-25 year transition 'could be very messy.'
Vinod Khosla donated $413K to Harris Action Fund (June 2024), $100K more (June 2023), plus multiple donations to Biden. Hosted Biden for fundraising dinner at his Portola Valley home. Publicly criticized Trump saying 'hard for me to support someone with no values, lies, cheats, rapes, demeans women, hates immigrants like me'.
Khosla sits on the board of Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), the climate fund initiated by Bill Gates. He has invested in frontier climate technologies including Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Realta Fusion (fusion energy), Quaise and Mazama Energy (superhot geothermal), Fortera (low-carbon cement), and Spiritus (direct air capture). He is personally carbon-neutral through TerraPass and Carbonfund offsets and aims to be carbon-negative.
negligent
KiOR, a biofuel company in which Khosla Ventures held 75% of voting shares and invested nearly $160 million, filed for bankruptcy in November 2014 after generating only $2.3 million in revenue against $629 million in losses. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood called it 'one of the largest frauds ever perpetrated on the State of Mississippi' and sued Khosla for $77 million repayment of state loans. The SEC fined the successor company $100,000 for misleading investors about biocrude yields. Shareholders received a $4.5 million settlement.
In 2011, Vinod and Neeru Khosla signed the Giving Pledge, committing to donate more than half their wealth to charity. Through their Amar Foundation (founded 1987), they have funded CK-12 Foundation (co-founded by Neeru in 2006), which provides free open-source textbooks and educational resources. By 2020, CK-12 had over 130 million students and teachers using its resources. The Amar Foundation donated at least $9 million to CK-12 in 2015, plus $2.7 million to IIT Delhi scholarships and $500,000 to Wikimedia Foundation.
After purchasing an 89-acre beachfront property in Half Moon Bay for $32.5 million in 2008, Khosla locked gates and hired security to block public access to Martins Beach, which had been open to the public for over 100 years. He fought the Surfrider Foundation through California courts and petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court twice (2018, 2023), losing both times. He reportedly preferred spending $10 million on litigation rather than $200 on a coastal development permit. Mississippi described his stance as prioritizing property rights over established public access.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) named Vinod Khosla a Champion of the Earth in 2010 for his vision and investment in clean energy technologies. The award recognized his approach of investing in high-risk 'black swan' technologies that could transform the energy sector, and his 'Chindia price' concept — the idea that clean energy solutions must be economically competitive without subsidies to achieve global adoption in China, India, and developing nations.
In September 2009, Khosla Ventures announced it had raised $1.1 billion in a 'green fund' for renewable energy and clean technology development. The fund was the largest clean technology fund launched since 2007 and one of the largest ever. $800 million was allocated for established technologies and $275 million for early-stage companies. By 2013, Khosla Ventures had invested in more than 70 cleantech companies.