The origin story of one of the most lucrative—and contrarian—AI bets in venture capital began with billionaire investor Vinod Khosla entering the fold after Elon Musk left Sam Altman hanging.
Here’s how it played out, as Khosla told Fortune. First Musk balked at following through on a pledged $1 billion for OpenAI, insisting on control and effectively holding Altman and his team “hostage.” So Altman went looking for a white knight. Khosla calls Musk a “great entrepreneur” but recalls that, “it seems like he wanted it like a private fiefdom with him in charge.”
