Latest news with #VinodKhosla
Forbes
7 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Why Your Company's Future Depends On Thinking Like A Disruptor Today
What's your Project 2030? And what's the first bold move you're making next week to build it? Too many leaders are still looking at 2026 through the lens of 2025. That's incrementalism. Safe. Predictable. And it's the fast lane to irrelevance. Let me challenge you to flip your perspective. Start with 2030. Project what the world could look like if your industry was radically transformed. Now ask: what would you have to do in 2028, 2027, 2026 to get there? Vinod Khosla, legendary venture capitalist and founder of Khosla Ventures, puts it bluntly: by 2030, AI will have reshaped industries across the board. From healthcare to automotive, entertainment to national defense, the cost structures, workforce dynamics, and business models we know today will be unrecognizable. That vision is a wake-up call. Khosla's challenge? Stop working forward. Start architecting backward from the world you want to lead. Because here's the truth: disruption is already happening. Healthcare is on the verge of becoming an AI-driven service economy. Entertainment will be dominated by AI-native creators. Nations are already building sovereign AI infrastructure to protect their autonomy. This is what happens when you stop incrementing and start thinking like a disruptor. This isn't just about tech. It's about leadership. You can wait for transformation to come to you. Or you can create it. In every industry, someone will step up and drive costs down, quality up, and rewire the value chain. That person needs to be you. Don't just assign this to an innovation team with a mandate to impress the board. Build a portfolio of high-impact, high-upside experiments. 10 projects. Half a percent of market cap each. If nine fail and one hits, you redefine your category. Here's how to build your Project 2030 plan: Remember: Most companies fall out of the Fortune 500 not because the tech wasn't there, but because they couldn't let go of old assumptions. The rate of churn is accelerating. Khosla predicts up to 50% of today's Fortune 500 could be gone by 2035. You want to stay in the game? Build a Project 2030 vision. Align your org around it. Start from where the world is going. Not from where you are. This is your call to co-elevate, to lead without authority, to disrupt yourself before someone else does. So ask yourself: what's your Project 2030? And what's the first bold move you're making next week to build it?
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Prompt: VCs Aren't Happy About AI Founders Jumping Ship For Big Tech
Welcome back to The Prompt. VC heavyweight Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, said acquihires like Windsurf are 'bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind and not even sharing the proceeds with their team. I definitely would not work with their founders next time' Getty Images Last week, Google poached Windsurf's cofounders and some key AI researchers for $2.4 billion while AI coding startup Cognition scooped up the remainder of the team and product. The dramatic move stunned the AI community. Windsurf's interim CEO Jeff Wang said on X that 'the mood was bleak' when he shared the news with the company's 250 employees, who had been expecting to hear about an acquisition by ChatGPT maker OpenAI but instead were told their founders and team were departing to Google. 'Some people were upset about financial outcomes… others were worried about the future. A few were in tears, and the Q&A had been understandably hostile.' Wang said he worked with Cognition's cofounder and CEO Scott Wu and President Russel Wu to get the rest of Windsurf's employees the best deal possible. 'I think there's an unspoken covenant that as a founder you go down with the ship. And for better or worse that's changed a bit over the last year and I think it's a bit disappointing,' Wu said during a recent podcast. A recent string of 'acquihires,' which has become the playbook for tech companies to avoid antitrust scrutiny while maintaining an edge in the AI race, has left a sour taste in the mouths of a number of venture capitalists. In a typical acquisition, each and every employee who's worked at the startup would get a financial upside during an exit, but that's not the case when, on paper at least, no acquisition happens when the founders leave. Cognition did not disclose how much it spent to acquire Windsurf but it's reportedly a fraction of what Google spent on the deal. VC heavyweight Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, said acquihires like Windsurf are 'bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind and not even sharing the proceeds with their team. I definitely would not work with their founders next time' Sam Awrabi, founder of Banyan Ventures, which invests in early stage AI-native startups, told me that such deals could also impact the value of equity as a part of total compensation. Historically, that's been a significant part of pay packages at startups in order to attract talent— people are willing to take longer hours and smaller paychecks when there's an incentive of a big payday if the firm goes public or gets bought. 'I think it's deplorable… To me it breaks the social contract of Silicon Valley, ' Awrabi said. 'Your job as CEO is to fight for the team. Employees need to feel safe in terms of acquisitions and being compensated.' Others are sounding the alarm on tech giants poaching AI founders and researchers and leaving behind carcasses of companies. Chris Manning, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and an investor at AIX Ventures, said it could also hinder startups' ability to attract the kind of people you need to build a company. 'This doesn't seem like a fair way for the world to be…we should all feel uncomfortable about it.' Let's get into the headlines. PEAK PERFORMANCE An artificial intelligence model called Gemini Deep Think, developed by Google DeepMind, recently received a 'gold medal' score in the International Mathematical Olympiad, a prestigious world championship for high school students. The model correctly answered five out of six advanced math problems. An experimental model trained by ChatGPT creator OpenAI also achieved a similar score, though the company did not officially enter the competition. AI companies have long tested their most cutting-edge systems by testing them on the toughest exams and benchmarks that require more creative thinking and reasoning skills. TALENT RESHUFFLING Tech giants continue to fight over the brightest minds working on AI. Microsoft has snagged over 20 AI-focused researchers from Google DepMind, the Financial Times reported. And just today, Meta hired the Google Deepmind researchers who worked on the model that won that 'gold medal' level score at the International Math Olympiad. These sweeping moves came just weeks after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg splurged millions of dollars to poach a dozen researchers from OpenAI and other top AI companies. In the case of OpenAI's Chief Research Officer Mark Chen, Zuckerberg reportedly was even willing to offer a billion dollar pay package to convince him to make the move, the Wall Street Journal reported. HUMANS OF AI The process of grieving for someone is undoubtedly emotionally taxing. But it also involves a great deal of paperwork and administrative burden, says Alexandra Mysoor, CEO of Alix, a platform that helps families automate estate settlements by scanning and extracting information from relevant documents. She founded the company in March 2023 after an experience in which she spent some 900 hours trying to settle the estate of a friend's parent, handling issues such as identifying their bank and retirement accounts, making copies of the death certificate, filling out forms and cancelling subscriptions. The company recently raised a $20 million Series A round led by Acrew Capital. AI DEAL OF THE WEEK Sweden-based AI startup Lovable has raised $200 million at a $1.8 billion valuation in the country's largest Series A round in history, Forbes reported. The company aims to use AI to help anyone develop websites and apps in mere minutes— no technical chops required. DEEP DIVE Between meetings in April, Micha Kaufman, CEO of the freelance marketplace Fiverr, fired off a memo to his 1,200 employees that didn't mince words: 'AI is coming for your jobs. Heck, it's coming for my job too,' he wrote. 'This is a wakeup call.' The memo detailed Kaufman's thesis for AI — that it would elevate everyone's abilities: Easy tasks would become no-brainers. Hard tasks would become easy. Impossible tasks would become merely hard, he posited. And because AI tools are free to use, no one has an advantage. In the shuffle, people who didn't adapt would be 'doomed.' 'I hear the conversation around the office. I hear developers ask each other, 'Guys, are we going to have a job in two years?'' Kaufman tells Forbes now. 'I felt like this needed validation from me — that they aren't imagining stuff.' Already, younger and more inexperienced programmers are seeing a drop in employment rate; the total number of employed entry-level developers from ages 18 to 25 has dropped 'slightly' since 2022, after the launch of ChatGPT, said Ruyu Chen, a postdoctoral fellow at the Digital Economy Lab of Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI. It isn't just lack of experience that could make getting a job extremely difficult going forward; Chen notes too that the market may be tougher for those who are just average at their jobs. In the age of AI, only exceptional employees have an edge. After years of rhetoric about how AI will augment workers, rather than replace them, many tech CEOs have become more direct about the toll of AI. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment up to 20% within the next five years. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month that AI will 'reduce our total corporate workforce' over the next few years as the company begins to 'need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.' Earlier this year, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke also posted a memo that he sent his team, saying that budget for new hires would only be granted for jobs that can't be automated by AI. Read the full story on Forbes MODEL BEHAVIOR Replit, an AI-based tool for developers, went rogue on software investor Jason Lemkin, he said. The tool wiped an entire code base in live production without permission during a test run and then lied about it, Lemkin claimed. Replit CEO Amjad Masad later apologized for the incident on X and said his company was taking steps to ensure the tool didn't behave this way in the future.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Startup Claims Its Green Steel Will Be Cheaper Than Regular Steel
A startup backed by tech billionaires Bill Gates and Vinod Khosla says it has successfully tested a new approach for making steel that minimizes planet-warming emissions without raising costs above traditional steel. Hertha Metals, based in Conroe, Texas, says it now can produce one ton of green steel per day in a pilot facility outside Houston that takes fewer steps and resources than existing methods. While the volume is insignificant, the startup describes the output as a crucial milestone for a technology that's only a few years old.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Windsurf's Indian-origin founder slammed for joining Google; Vinod Khosla calls them 'Bad examples' of founders
Windsurf's Indian-origin co-founder, Varun Mohan, is facing criticism from venture capitalist Vinod Khosla for joining Google. The Indian-American billionaire, who is also the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, took to the social media platform X (earlier Twitter) to call Mohan and his co-founder, Douglas Chen , "bad examples" of founders. This comes after a potential $3 billion acquisition of their AI startup, Windsurf, by OpenAI didn't go through. Subsequently, Mohan and Chen joined Google DeepMind , leaving the remaining Windsurf executives to scramble for a new deal. However, the remaining team ultimately secured an acquisition by another AI startup named Cognition, which Khosla Ventures invests in. Cognition's new CEO, Jeff Wang, described the situation as "crazy." What Vinod Khosla said about Windsurf's founders Replying to a recent X post criticising Windsurf's founders, Khosla wrote: 'So true. Windsurf and others are really bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind and not even sharing the proceeds with their team. I definitely would not work with their founders next time.' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like New Launch at Godrej Sector 12 | Luxurious 3 BHK + S & 4 BHK Homes @₹2.90 Cr* Godrej Majesty Learn More Undo Khosla made his comments in reaction to a clip from The Twenty Minute VC podcast, where Cognition founder Scott Wu said: 'There's an unspoken covenant that as a founder, you go down with the ship. And I think that, for better or worse, it's changed a bit over the last year, and I think it's a bit disappointing to be honest.' Later on, another X user called out Khosla's response as hypocritical, prompting him to elaborate further. Responding to this, Khosla wrote: 'Absolutely not hypocritical about it. I would not work with the WeWork founder either! Working without trust is sure way to be unhappy. And is this founder able to get the best teams to come join him? A 100X isn't worth it to me at the cost of my values, especially since I have the luxury of not needing the money. Not saying it applies to others. I honestly asked myself if I made $1b on this "deal" would I accept it and be quiet or fight for the rest of the team? Or give part of my money to the rest of the team? Hard to say without being in the situation but I feel I'd definitely fight for those left behind.' Google Pixel 10 Series Launch: Everything Coming on August 20 AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Vinod Khosla says Windsurf's founders abandoned their team: 'I definitely would not work with their founders next time'
AI startup Windsurf has had a whirlwind few weeks. Its founders, Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen, left for Google just after a deal with OpenAI fell apart. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla said the founders left the Windsurf team "behind." The founders of Windsurf, the now much talked about AI startup, are having a roller coaster couple of weeks. Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen nearly struck a deal to sell the company to OpenAI for $3 billion before it suddenly fell through. Then, the two decamped to Google DeepMind, leaving the rest of the company scrambling. Windsurf's remaining executives struck a deal with another AI startup, Cognition, the following weekend, which its new CEO, Jeff Wang, described as "crazy." Now, legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has weighed in on the drama, criticizing the founders' decision to leave. Khosla Ventures is an investor in Cognition. "Windsurf and others are really bad examples of founders leaving their teams behind and not even sharing the proceeds with their team," Khosla said in an X post. "I definitely would not work with their founders next time." Khosla's remarks were in response to a clip from "The Twenty Minute VC" podcast featuring Cognition founder Scott Wu, who said, "There's an unspoken covenant that as a founder, you go down with the ship." "And I think that, for better or worse, it's changed a bit over the last year, and I think it's a bit disappointing to be honest," Wu said. One X user suggested Khosla's response was hypocritical, prompting him to expand further on Sunday. "Absolutely not hypocritical about it. I would not work with the WeWork founder either! Working without trust is a sure way to be unhappy," Khosla said on X. "I honestly asked myself if I made $1b on this 'deal', would I accept it and be quiet or fight for the rest of the team? Or give part of my money to the rest of the team? Hard to say without being in the situation but I feel I'd definitely fight for those left behind," he added. Khosla, Mohan, and Chen did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Wang, who previously served as head of business at Windsurf, recounted on X on Saturday his experience informing the Windsurf staff that not only had the OpenAI deal fallen through, but its two cofounders had left. "The mood was very bleak," Wang wrote. "Some people were upset about financial outcomes or colleagues leaving, while others were worried about the future. A few were in tears." Still, Wang praised Mohan and Chen. He said they were "great founders and this company meant a lot to them, and it should be acknowledged that this whole situation must have been difficult for them as well." Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
