Snapshot: A Silicon Valley billionaire with a long history of success in entrepreneurship, Khosla has been funding charitable and political projects throughout his career--including giving millions to ballot measure fights in California.
Location: Portola Valley, CA
Giving Focus: India social issues, climate change
Top Recipients: AB PAC, Nancy Pelosi
Profile: Raised in New Delhi, Khosla earned an engineering degree in India before getting his MBA from Stanford. He founded the software development company Sun Microsystems shortly after school, then quickly moved to a venture capital firm. In 2004, he founded Khosla Ventures to facilitate his investing and philanthropy, and he’s now worth an estimated $2.8 billion. Moving forward, Khosla seems most excited about artificial intelligence, particularly its potential in medicine. Khosla has a variety of charitable projects, chief among them his investment in SKS Microfinance, an organization that provides loans to poor women in India to fight poverty. His wife Neeru co-founded the education nonprofit CK-12, and the couple’s Amar Foundation has provided significant gifts to the organization. Most recently, he pledged $10 million to support India hospitals' fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and connected with the House of Representatives' Congressional Council on India.
Khosla has been donating to the Democrats for years. Outside of a handful of donations to West Coast Republicans like former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Khosla’s political giving has almost entirely gone to liberal candidates and organizations. Over the years, he’s made a habit of donating to a handful of congressional candidates and party committees each cycle, mostly in California, but his largest checks have gone toward ballot initiatives. In 2006, he gave more than $2 million in support of California Proposition 87, a failed bid to tax oil producers and use the money to fund clean energy; in 2010, he gave more than $1 million to oppose an initiative that would have repealed a recent environmental law in the state—the measure was defeated; and in 2004, he gave a half-million dollars to help pass a measure for stem cell research. In the 2020 cycle, Khosla opted mostly to support liberal PACs like AB PAC, a Joe Biden-supporting group that primarily funded anti-Republican ads, which Khosla supported with $1.5 million; he also gave $1 million to the Senate Majority PAC.
President Joe Biden’s stated commitment to significant environmental legislation no doubt excites Khosla. While the Silicon Valley billionaire has been in the press lately, mostly discussing his enthusiasm for AI, we should expect Khosla to continue supporting Democrats as they look to maintain a majority in Congress and get serious climate policy passed.
Takeaways: Khosla is a focused philanthropist who uses his giving to zero-in on specific goals. Consistently working on improving social welfare in India and expanding climate change legislation in the U.S., Khosla demonstrates how a philanthropist can develop a highly targeted style of giving without running money through a foundation. BT readers can take lessons by not being afraid to make a significant investment of your philanthropic resources when the moment comes to support a fight.