Indian-American co-founder of Sun Microsystems Vinod Khosla has been named among Vanity Fair’s 100 “most influential people of the information age,” a list that topped by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple chief Steve Jobs.
Khosla, an IIT Delhi and Stanford alumnus, ranks 71 on the New Establishment 2010 list, where he is the sole Indian-origin person.
His capital venture firm Khosla Ventures raised $1.3 billion last year to seed two different investment vehicles — a $1-billion fund earmarked for clean-energy and information technologies and a $300-million fund that will target high-risk, experimental projects.
Khosla’s current investments include EcoMotors, a Detroit-based manufacturer of fuel-efficient internal-combustion engines; LED lighting company Soraa; solar-energy concern Cogenra and a high-efficiency-cooling-system company, New PAX.
In May, former British prime minister Tony Blair joined Khosla Ventures as an adviser.
Vanity Fair said that Khosla’s “pet peeve” is “Greenwashing”. “There’s a lot of this fashionable ‘Let’s go green!,’ especially politicians spending other people's money, to show that they can be greener than the next guy,” Khosla was quoted as saying.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who tops the list, was “anointed” as the magazine’s “new Caesar”.
Also on the list are Google’s Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt ranking third and News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch in the fourth place.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who tops the list, was “anointed” as the magazine’s “new Caesar”.
Also on the list are Google’s Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt ranking third and News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch in the fourth place.