A public feud has erupted between Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla after Khosla accused Musk of promoting racism. The exchange, which unfolded on X, saw Khosla urging employees of Musk's companies to resign and join his portfolio, alleging that Musk "frames racism as a 'great and desirable paradigm'".
The dispute stemmed from a September 2025 post by Musk stating that "white people are a rapidly diminishing minority of global population". Khosla responded by accusing Musk of pushing an ideology centered on race rather than merit, suggesting Musk favored "WAGA (White America Great Again)" instead of "MAGA (Make America Great Again)". He went on to encourage "all non-whites in @tesla, @SpaceX, @X etc and all decent whites" to leave Musk's companies and send him their LinkedIn profiles.
Musk retaliated with insults, calling Khosla a "pompous asshole" and using a slur for people with intellectual disabilities. He then invoked his personal life to counter the accusations of racism, stating, "My partner, Shivon, is half Indian and my eldest son with her is named in honor of the great Indian physicist Chandrasekhar".
Shivon Zilis, Musk's partner, is a Canadian technology executive and venture capitalist. Born in 1986, Zilis has a Punjabi Indian mother and a Canadian father. She studied economics and philosophy at Yale University and has held positions at IBM, Bloomberg Beta, and OpenAI. Currently, she works at Musk's Neuralink. Musk and Zilis have four children, including a son named Seldon Lycurgus, whose middle name "Sekhar" pays tribute to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Nobel laureate in physics.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an Indian-American astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his work on the structure and evolution of stars.
Khosla, an Indian-American who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s, is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla Ventures is a Silicon Valley firm that invests in technology, biotech, energy, and AI, and has backed companies like OpenAI and DoorDash.
Musk and Khosla have a history of public disagreements, particularly concerning AI development and governance. Musk sued OpenAI in March 2024, alleging the company abandoned its non-profit, open-source mission. Khosla, an investor in OpenAI, dismissed the lawsuit as "sour grapes".
The recent exchange also referenced Khosla's attempt to restrict public access to Martins Beach near his $37 million property in San Mateo County, which has been the subject of multiple lawsuits. Musk alluded to this controversy, further intensifying the personal nature of the dispute.
The conflict highlights the growing tension and political divide within the tech industry, with figures like Musk and Khosla clashing over issues ranging from AI to immigration and race.
