OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla, a vocal Trump critic, agrees with the president on AI and China: ‘We are in a techno-economic war’ |
OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla, a vocal Trump critic, agrees with the president on AI and China: ‘We are in a techno-economic war’
Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has not been shy in criticizing Donald Trump’s policies on immigration, climate change and diplomacy. In 2024, he said the then presidential-candidate had “depraved values.”
But the billionaire Khosla, who acknowledges he is on the president’s “sh-tlist,” places himself in Trump’s corner on one key issue: AI policy and China.
“We are in a techno-economic war with China,” Khosla, who founded both Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures, said to Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell on the “Titans and Disruptors of Industry” podcast. He admitted he “mostly” agreed with Trump’s approach to AI, even as he disagreed with most of the administration’s other policies. “We have to win that race,” he said in the interview.
In 2019, Khosla was the first institutional investor in OpenAI, investing $50 million at a $1 billion valuation. OpenAI recently closed a $110 million round of financing that valued it at $780 billion.
The U.S. has steadily intensified its restrictions on China’s tech sector since late 2022, when the Biden administration imposed sweeping controls on the........