Silicon Valley venture capital tycoon Vinod Khosla recently posted on social media criticizing Musk for promoting racism and publicly called on employees of his companies to quit, prompting a fierce response from Musk. On Monday night local time, Khosla posted on X that Musk described racism as a "great and ideal paradigm." This was in response to a post from Musk last September in which he said "white people make up a rapidly shrinking share of the global population."
Musk has made some posts in the past about changing white demographics.
In a post on Monday, Khosla called on employees of Musk's companies to jump ship and join Khosla Ventures' portfolio, which includes artificial intelligence startups such as OpenAI and Replit.
He wrote: "All non-white employees at Tesla, SpaceX,
Musk immediately lashed out at Khosla, calling the venture capitalist an "arrogant bastard."
"Vinod, you are not only an arrogant asshole, but you are trying to prevent the public from using the public beach near your home..." Musk wrote, "My partner Shivon is half-Indian, and my eldest son with her is named after the great Indian physicist Chandrasekhar."
Musk appeared to be referring to Khosla's years-long attempt to block public access to a beach near his home on the coast of the peninsula in San Mateo County that cuts through his $37 million estate, and he has filed multiple lawsuits over the issue.
The two billionaires have clashed before. In 2024, Musk urged Khosla to vote for the Trump-Vance combination, but the latter refused. The venture capital tycoon also called Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI "sour grapes."