# Khosla Ventures > US venture capital firm founded in 2004 by Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla; an early bet on OpenAI yielded one of history's highest venture returns. **Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads: · 4 takes · 4 lenses · 1 regions ## What it is Khosla Ventures is a US venture capital firm headquartered at 2128 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California. Founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a former general partner at Kleiner Perkins, the firm invests at the seed and early-growth stages, with a stated preference for companies attacking large markets with technology that most investors dismiss. Investment areas span AI, energy transition, health, consumer software, enterprise productivity, fintech, robotics, and advanced manufacturing. The firm runs three parallel fund tracks: a seed vehicle, a core venture fund, and a growth fund for later-stage follow-on positions. ## History Khosla left Kleiner Perkins in 2004 to launch the firm. Its early years were dominated by ambitious clean-energy bets, several of which lost capital. The portfolio shifted toward software and AI through the 2010s. The most consequential decision came in 2019, when Khosla wrote a US$50 million check to OpenAI at a US$1 billion valuation, securing roughly a 5% stake in the company's profit-generating arm. That was the largest single check Vinod Khosla had written in four decades of investing. In 2023, the firm raised US$3 billion across three funds. By early 2026, the OpenAI stake was estimated at US$8 billion, a 160x return that stands among the highest multiples ever recorded in venture capital. ## Current state As of mid-2026, the firm has invested in roughly 740 companies across its fund history, including 59 that reached unicorn status. The portfolio includes Instacart, DoorDash, Affirm, Stripe, Impossible Foods, and Square. In February 2025, Khosla Ventures began raising US$3.5 billion across three new funds: approximately US$1.75 billion for its ninth core fund, US$1.1 billion for a growth vehicle, and US$650 million for a seed vehicle, a 17% step-up from the prior vintage. Keith Rabois rejoined as managing director in early 2025 after five years at Founders Fund, bringing prior bets on DoorDash, Affirm, and Stripe. In June 2026, Khosla led the [General Intuition Series A](/ar/n/general-intuition-series-a-2026), a US$320 million round at a US$2.3 billion valuation for a startup training AI agents on video-game footage. Earlier in 2026, the firm participated in the round that made [Sarvam AI](/ar/n/sarvam-ai-unicorn-hcltech-2026) India's newest AI unicorn at a US$1.5 billion valuation. ## Relationships The firm co-invests frequently with General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia on AI and deep-tech rounds. In October 2024, Khosla Ventures structured a US$405 million special-purpose vehicle, pooling capital from outside investors, to participate in OpenAI's US$6.6 billion funding round, which valued the company at US$157 billion. That SPV structure shows the firm also functions as an allocation channel, offering co-investors access to rounds that would otherwise be closed. Vinod Khosla's public profile extends well beyond venture capital: he spent years in US federal courts litigating public beach access at Martins Beach in San Mateo County, California, a dispute that shaped California coastal-access law and drew national press. ## What to watch The 2025 fund vintage deploys into an AI market where seed valuations have compressed from 2023-2024 peaks. Whether the growth fund can generate exits through IPOs or secondary sales is the key near-term question: the US technology IPO window was partially open in early 2026 but has not absorbed the volume of late-stage AI companies seeking liquidity. Khosla's publicly stated thesis that AI will automate the majority of knowledge-worker tasks within a decade underpins the portfolio's concentration in robotics, AI infrastructure, and foundation-model-adjacent software; if adoption timelines extend, those positions will face markdowns. The firm's ability to continue leading rounds, rather than merely co-investing alongside larger funds, will determine whether its brand advantage compounds into the next vintage. ## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens) ### official record - **Khosla Ventures** (United States, en) — Official about page documenting the firm's investment thesis, focus areas spanning AI, energy, health, and deep tech, and fund structure with seed, core, and growth tracks. Source: https://www.khoslaventures.com/about ### fund reporting - **TechCrunch** (United States, en) — Reports the February 2025 fundraise of US$3.5 billion across three funds: a US$1.75 billion ninth core fund, US$1.1 billion growth vehicle, and US$650 million seed fund. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/24/khosla-ventures-seeks-3-5b-in-fresh-capital/ ### investment reporting - **TechCrunch** (United States, en) — Documents the US$405 million SPV Khosla raised from outside investors for OpenAI's October 2024 round, which closed at US$6.6 billion valuing OpenAI at US$157 billion. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/11/khosla-ventures-just-backed-openai-with-405m-more-but-not-necessarily-with-its-own-capital/ ### profile - **Fortune** (United States, en) — Profiles Khosla's 2019 US$50 million bet on OpenAI at a US$1 billion valuation and traces how that position grew to an estimated US$8 billion by early 2026, a 160x return. Source: https://fortune.com/2026/03/13/openai-original-vc-bet-how-vinod-khosla-stepped-in-after-elon-musk-balked/ ## Across the graph - Related: [[general-intuition-series-a-2026]], [[sarvam-ai-unicorn-hcltech-2026]] - Entities: Org:khosla Ventures, Vinod Khosla, Openai, Instacart, Impossible Foods --- Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ar/n/khosla-ventures-dossier