Vinod Khosla

Khosla, 69, is one of the most influential investors in Silicon Valley. Originally from India, Khosla in 1982 cofounded Sun Microsystems, which pioneered a range of open-source software. He then spent 18 years at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, where he invested in successful fiber-optic and internet companies during the 1990s. One of the more noteworthy was Juniper Networks, which went public in 1999, generating a 2,500-times return for Kleiner. In 2004, Khosla launched his own firm, which has invested in health care, sustainability, and AI startups. Khosla made perhaps his biggest bet in 2019 when his firm wrote a $50 million check to OpenAI. He was also one of the first to demand that OpenAI rehire CEO Sam Altman after the startup’s board fired him late last year. More recently, Khosla has gained notice for predicting that most jobs will be replaced by AI.