“Early OpenAI Backer Khosla Defends Startup’s Complex Structure”, 2023-11-16 (; backlinks):
Vinod Khosla, whose firm Khosla Ventures in 2019 led the first investment into OpenAI’s for-profit subsidiary, said Wednesday that the company’s limit on returns for investors didn’t bother him and that it aligned with the nonprofit nature of OpenAI’s parent organization.
“People get hung up on structure”, he said. “That’s the wrong way to look at it. If you’re talking about changing the world, who freaking cares? We’ll figure it out.” Khosla’s initial $50 million check into OpenAI could eventually be worth $5 billion even with the company’s theoretical cap on returns of 100× the investment, he said.
Many AI developers consider OpenAI’s model GPT-4, which it released in March, to be the highest-quality model available on the market. Asked about the future of OpenAI’s technology, Khosla said “even the people at OpenAI couldn’t tell you what GPT-5 will be.”