Billionaire Vinod Khosla has now fired back at Tesla CEO Elon Musk with a lengthy 230-word reply on X (formerly known as Twitter). The clash between the two started after Musk defended himself against the accusations of racism by citing that his partner Shivon Zills has an Indian heritage. Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the head of Khosla Ventures, dismissed Musk’s defense and accused him of promoting a racially exclusionary agenda. In his long reply posted on X, Khosla has urged Musk to stop personalising the debate by invoking family ties and instead should focus on the substance of his public commentary.“Instead of bringing your family into this, maybe try not to tweet seemingly racist stuff. That would be a better defense than citing heritage. Leadership requires responsibility, and words matter when you have millions of followers,” wrote Khosla.He further argued that Musk’s rhetoric risks normalising divisive narratives and undermines the inclusive values that Silicon Valley should stand for.

Read Vinod Khosla’s complete reply here

“Instead of bringing your family into it, maybe try not tweeting “SEEMINGLY” racist stuff next time? Many would appreciate it if you acknowledge you are not trying to establish a white society in America, and are not WAGA,and racism isn’t behind your many laments around white birth rates, declining % of population and many similar laments.As to the beach issue you’d appreciate me standing upto the principle of defending “ the principal of private property” instead of giving in to whatever the Coastal Commission wants. EVERY court ruling (in Friends of Martin Beach case including all appeals) so far reaffirmsthere has NEVER been free access to the beach thru private property, just paid access for parking, though the beach is public property (I’ve never asserted it isn’t). You would appreciate it if you knew the facts. Anything else is communism. Separately, courts have denied my petition to have the right to close the gate because the CCC has not denied me the right to close the gate and wont give me a hearing for years because then they would have to deny my petition and I would have legal recourse.So they just wont give me a hearing date.Unfortunately I have noproof to refute your claim that I am a pompous asshole and retarded. I have said publicly I do admire your extraordinary entrepreneurial skills.”

What happened between Elon Musk and Vinod Khosla

Vinod Khosla got into a heated exchange with Tesla CEO Elon Musk after accusing him of framing racism as a ‘grate and desirable paradigm’. The remarks made by Khosla came in response to a September post from Musk, where he claimed that ‘white people are a rapidly diminishing minority of global population’.Khosla escalated the confrontation and urged the employees at Elon Musk’s companies — Tesla, SpaceX and X to quit and join his own portfolio of startups, which includes OpenAI and Replit. Tagging Musk in a post Khosla wrote, “Elon Musk doesn’t want MAGA, he wants WAGA of ‘white America great again’ as a racism is great and desirable’ paradigm. All non-whites in @Tesla, @SpaceX and @X etc and all decent whites should quit and join our portfolio. Email us your LinkedIn!”SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded with a barrage of insults and also called Kholsa a ‘pompous a***ho**’ and retard. He also referenced Khosla’s long-running legal battle to block public access to Martins Beach, a stretch of coastline adjacent to Khosla’s $37 million estate in San Mateo County.“Vinod, you’re not just such a pompous a**ho** that you tried to stop the public from using a public beach near your house, you’ve also gone full re***d. My partner, Shivon, is half Indian and my eldest son with her is named in honor of the great Indian physicist Chandrasekhar,” wrote Musk.