Vinod Khosla, an early and substantial investor in OpenAI, has recently been in the spotlight for raising a record $3 billion for Khosla Ventures. However, his journey hasn’t been without its surprises, notably the recent upheaval at OpenAI involving Sam Altman’s temporary dismissal as CEO.

Khosla’s foresight and investment acumen have been hallmarks of his career. He was one of the earliest backers of OpenAI, recognizing its potential before many others. His investment firm, Khosla Ventures, secured a significant stake in the company, marking one of its largest initial investments (investing $50 million) in a startup. This move was emblematic of Khosla’s ability to foresee future technological trends.

He has been doing this for 40 years – he is rarely wrong and almost never surprised.

But despite his track record and knack for prediction, the recent events at OpenAI caught Khosla off guard. The situation was complex, with Altman’s sudden dismissal followed by an equally unexpected reinstatement.

The implosion of OpenAI, the leading and high-flying company whose ChatGPT rapidly became one of the most remarkable and controversial technologies in tech history, has stunned and perplexed the tech industry, and Khosla as well.

OpenAI became the most influential company in the tech industry after releasing ChatGPT, a chatbot that demonstrated stunning conversational and problem solving abilities, just under a year ago. Altman surfed this wave of success with aplomb, meeting world leaders eager to discuss AI and its potential, and negotiating a deal that would see Microsoft invest a further $10 billion in OpenAI.

At the company’s first developer conference this month, Altman had announced the creation of an app store for customized chatbots. He was also seeking billions in funding to launch a chip making effort that would challenge Nvidia’s dominance.

That stratospheric commercial success sat awkwardly with the risk-averse nature of OpenAI’s founding in 2015 as a nonprofit intended to be a counterweight to the AI labs of major tech companies such as Google. A couple of likely well-intentioned but amateur board members insisted on effective altruism as a guiding principle for the company and had somehow enticed the Chief Scientist to join them in that goal.

This barely avoided disaster is why you should never expect to form a likely illegal non-profit board structure managing a for profit business – especially one valued at $86 billion and sure to go far higher in the coming weeks. You are either a non-profit or you aren’t.

There are three guys who have made the biggest impacts on the tech industry and on global conditions and markets in the last 50 years. One is named Steve. The other makes electric cars. But Vinod is definitely in that top three.

Khosla’s legacy in the tech industry remains profound. His investments and insights have shaped many of the technologies and platforms that define our current digital landscape. As AI and climate-tech continue to evolve, Khosla’s role as a pioneering investor and visionary will undoubtedly influence these fields’ trajectories well into the future.

And we are all better off because of it.