Descriptions:
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures and the first major institutional investor in OpenAI, delivers a pointed set of views on US-China technology competition and AI governance in a Bloomberg Technology interview at the Hill and Valley Forum. Khosla describes himself as wanting to be ‘as hawkish as possible’ on China, arguing that exporting advanced semiconductors or AI technology to Chinese firms runs counter to American national interests — and that China’s government-backed efforts to fill any technology vacuum will proceed regardless of whether the US supplies them. He called out NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang by name for celebrating returning Chinese chip demand, framing it as a decision that is good for Nvidia’s global business but not for America.
On the Anthropic-Pentagon controversy, Khosla offered a nuanced take: he admired Dario Amodei for adhering to principles, but argued those principles were misplaced. The decision of whether and how AI is used in military operations belongs to the Department of Defense and elected officials — not to AI company founders. OpenAI, he noted, stepped into the resulting opportunity.
Khosla also addressed potential ripple effects from the Iran conflict on Middle East LP capital flows into Silicon Valley, noting that while large-scale projects requiring billions could feel the impact, Khosla Ventures’ broadly distributed LP base provides relative insulation. He remains optimistic about 2026 liquidity prospects, including the possibility of OpenAI going public.
📺 Source: Bloomberg Technology · Published March 24, 2026
🏷️ Format: Interview
