Vinod Khosla accused Elon Musk of promoting racist views on Monday and publicly urged employees at Musk’s companies to leave and join firms in Khosla Ventures’ portfolio. Musk responded sharply, trading insults with the billionaire venture capitalist and escalating an already tense rivalry.
Khosla made the remarks on X, criticizing Musk’s past comments about global demographic changes and claiming the Tesla CEO framed racism as a positive concept. He then openly invited staff from Tesla, SpaceX, and X to quit and apply to companies backed by his fund, which includes AI startups like OpenAI and Replit.
Musk fired back on social media, attacking Khosla personally and referencing the VC’s long-running legal battle over public access to Martins Beach near his California estate. The two billionaires have clashed before over politics, OpenAI, and Musk’s public positions.
Neither Musk nor Khosla immediately responded to requests for comment.