Khosla Ventures Passed on Anthropic to Preserve OpenAI Insight

Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said the firm declined an investment in Anthropic because it values insights from its OpenAI relationship more than a stake in the rival AI company.

On Wednesday, Nov. 4, Khosla described the choice as deliberate. He said understanding where AI was headed mattered more to the firm than adding an Anthropic investment.

Khosla Ventures led OpenAI’s first venture financing with a $50 million investment made in late 2018 or early 2019, when OpenAI was valued at $1 billion. The investment represented about 5% of OpenAI. Khosla has described it as the largest initial bet of his career, twice the size of any first check he had written before.

Khosla has also described his approach as backing specific teams and outcomes rather than spreading investments among competing companies. TokenPost previously covered overlapping AI investors and venture-firm exclusivity rules.