{"slug": "khosla-ventures-first-backer-of-openai-is-raising-up-to-5-5bn", "title": "Khosla Ventures, first backer of OpenAI, is raising up to $5.5bn", "summary": "Khosla Ventures, the first outside investor in OpenAI, is in talks to raise up to $5.5 billion across a new set of funds, according to Bloomberg. The record raise would allocate about $1 billion for seed-stage startups, $2 billion for growth-stage companies, and $2.5 billion for an opportunity fund targeting mature firms. The move follows a trend of early AI backers like Menlo Ventures and Founders Fund raising their largest-ever funds, betting the AI boom still has room to run.", "body_md": "Vinod Khosla likes to be early. His firm was the first outside investor in OpenAI, back when that was a strange thing to be. Now Khosla Ventures is raising money to do it again, at a scale it has never tried.\n\nThe firm is in talks to gather as much as $5.5bn across a new set of funds, [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-23/khosla-ventures-in-talks-to-raise-5-5-billion-in-new-funds) reported. People familiar with the private talks described the plans. That would be its largest raise in two decades. Its last set of funds, closed a year ago, came to around $4bn.\n\nMost of the money would go where Khosla likes it: early. The plan floats about $1bn for seed-stage startups and roughly $2bn for slightly older ones. A further $2.5bn would form an “opportunity” fund for more mature companies.\n\nThose are the ones now raising sums that once sounded absurd. A spokesperson declined to comment, and the figures could still move.\n\nThe number is big, but the pattern is the story. Firms that got into [OpenAI or Anthropic](https://thenextweb.com/news/anthropic-1-2-trillion-secondary-valuation-openai) early are now raising the biggest funds of their lives. Paper gains have emboldened them, and they are racing to repeat the trick.\n\n## A stampede of record funds\n\nThe comparisons pile up. Last month [Menlo Ventures](https://thenextweb.com/news/menlo-ventures-3bn-anthropic-ai-funds) closed a record $3bn, and it sits on a roughly $14bn stake in Anthropic. Peter Thiel’s [Founders Fund](https://thenextweb.com/news/founders-fund-spacex-50-billion-windfall) recently raised $6bn, its largest ever. Earlier this year [Sequoia](https://thenextweb.com/news/sable-aidan-ai-employee-sequoia-45-million) gathered about $7bn. Each is a wager that the AI boom still has room to run, as [Outlook Business](https://www.outlookbusiness.com/deeptech/early-openai-backer-khosla-ventures-eyes-record-55-bn-fundraise-for-tech-startups) noted.\n\nKhosla’s own bets sketch the thesis. Beyond OpenAI, the firm seeded [Cognition](https://thenextweb.com/news/scaled-cognition-100m-khosla-reliable-ai), an AI coding startup, and Sakana AI, which builds a language model for Japan. It also backed Physical Intelligence, which trains models for robots. The idea is that the next OpenAI is already somewhere in that list.\n\n## The man, not the football team\n\nThere was one other question on a recent fundraising call. Khosla had just led an investor group to buy the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6bn. That price would set a National Football League record.\n\nOn the call he assured investors he has no plans to run the team. He stays devoted to venture capital, [Startup Fortune](https://startupfortune.com/khosla-ventures-is-in-talks-to-raise-55-billion-as-vinod-khosla-doubles-down-on-ai/) reported. That leaves the real question hanging over the raise. Can a firm catch the same lightning twice? Or is $5.5bn what the top of a market looks like?\n\n## Get the TNW newsletter\n\nGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/khosla-ventures-first-backer-of-openai-is-raising-up-to-5-5bn", "canonical_source": "https://thenextweb.com/news/khosla-ventures-first-backer-of-openai-is-raising-up-to-5-5bn", "published_at": "2026-07-23 13:34:05+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-23 14:01:00.213010+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-startups"], "entities": ["Khosla Ventures", "OpenAI", "Vinod Khosla", "Menlo Ventures", "Founders Fund", "Sequoia", "Cognition", "Sakana AI"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/khosla-ventures-first-backer-of-openai-is-raising-up-to-5-5bn", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/khosla-ventures-first-backer-of-openai-is-raising-up-to-5-5bn.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/khosla-ventures-first-backer-of-openai-is-raising-up-to-5-5bn.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/khosla-ventures-first-backer-of-openai-is-raising-up-to-5-5bn.jsonld"}}