Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla has demanded an apology from Elon Musk after the owner of X attacked Khosla for his role in an ongoing public land battle in California—extending a monthslong on-and-off feud between the two tech billionaires.
Vinod Khosla speaks at the 2024 Forbes Iconoclast Summit at Cipriani Wall Street on June 20, 2024 in ... [+]
Musk on Saturday posted a seemingly altered image of a sign on a beach that read "No plebs allowed. Property of Vinod Khosla" a reference to a 16-year-long legal battle Khosla has undertaken to restrict use of his private property to access the public Martins Beach.
Khosla, who bought a piece of land in 2008 that previously served as a paid parking lot for Martins Beach south of San Francisco, has said he no longer wants the privately owned property to be publicly accessible and has been battling with the state over the issue for almost two decades, including a rejected appeal to the Supreme Court in 2018.
Over the course of the weekend, Khosla responded to Musk, demanding an apology from him for "spreading falsehoods,” saying he has never put up a sign even remotely like the one that was tweeted and claiming Musk causes "a lot of damage with your irresponsible behavior."
Musk also used the beach access issue to fuel a longstanding dispute between the pair that has seen them trade barbs over the 2024 election, development of artificial intelligence and immigration issues.
The two have publicly argued in recent months about ChatGPT parent OpenAI (which they’re both linked to), Khosla called a conversation between Musk and Donald Trump “dumb” last month, Musk claimed Khosla was “deranged about Trump” and the billionaires sparred on X over Trump’s false claims about Haitian immigrants more recently.
Over the weekend, Musk called Khosla, a self-proclaimed political independent who has publicly backed Kamala Harris, a hypocrite for allegedly supporting a plan to send "tens of thousands of unvetted migrants to small towns throughout America, but he didn’t even want to let the public walk on his beach" (it’s unclear what plan Musk is referring to).
Khosla hit back at Musk calling him a "hypocrite" for his stances on immigration, to which Khosla said he is against illegal immigration and feels "legal, vetted immigration is a huge advantage that America has over many other nations."
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Khosla bought a $32.5 million property on Martin's Beach, a popular surfing spot near San Francisco, back in 2008. The land had previously been owned by another family who allowed for paid parking on the lot in exchange for beach access. In 2010, Khosla put up “no trespassing” signs and built a gate on the property that blocks the private Martins Beach Road, the only access point to the beach. He has said it is the "inherent right" of any property owner to control access to his or her property. The State Lands Commission says the public has always had access to the beach via that road and should be allowed to do so based on that historical use under California law, but Khosla argues there was never free public access to the beach, only paid access privately controlled by the previous owner. As the current owner of private property, he has said he has the right to decide who is allowed access to it. Last week, Khosla was dealt a blow in the battle when a judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit from the California Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission that would force him to allow public access to the road. The case will be tried in April.
The two billionaires have feuded over presidential candidates, immigration policy, artificial intelligence, the role of government in business and other topics. In July, after President Joe Biden said he would not seek reelection, Khosla posted to X the Democratic party should seek a moderate candidate for his replacement, and Musk instead encouraged him to support the Trump ticket. Khosla replied it would be “hard for me to support someone with no values, lies, cheats, rapes, demeans women, hates immigrants like me.” Musk replied that while Trump isn't perfect, he is more likely to "promote individual freedoms over the heavy hand of government," to which Khosla hit back and suggested Musk’s companies—including SpaceX and Tesla—would not be as successful as they are without government contracts and subsidies. The pair have also expressed differing views on artificial intelligence, a sector they’re both involved with, as Khosla’s firm has invested in OpenAI while Musk backed the company early on but now runs a competing effort. After Musk sued OpenAI for allegedly abandoning its original non-profit open-source ambitions, Khosla called the suit “sour grapes,” leading Musk to claim he “doesn’t know what he is talking about.” Khosla has backed heavier regulation when it comes to how AI is used and developed, while some Musk allies like Marc Andreessen have pushed for open-source development rather than regulations.
Khosla is ranked as the 397th richest person in the world as of Monday with an estimated net worth of $7.4 billion. He co-founded computer hardware firm Sun Microsystems in 1982 before it was acquired by Oracle in a $7.4 billion deal in 2009. He then founded Khosla Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, which invests in experimental technologies such as biomedicine and robotics. Musk is ranked No. 1 on Forbes' list of billionaires with a $257.3 billion net worth.
Musk has a history of using X to criticize and go toe-to-toe with other billionaires or politicians. Musk recently traded barbs with Humza Yousaf after he called the Scottish politician "super racist against white people" and a "scumbag" in response to claims his country has a problem of structural racism. Yousaf responded by branding Musk “one of the most dangerous men on the planet." Musk caught the attention of British leaders last month after he took to X to criticize police response to riots sparked by the fatal triple-stabbing of three children in Southport, England. Musk accused U.K. police of overly policing white protestors, labeled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer "two-tier Keir" and called director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson “The Woke Stasi.” In July, Musk repeatedly called Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a dictator and questioned Maduro’s widely disputed electoral win, leading the leader to reportedly challenge Musk to a physical fight on national television. Last year, Musk accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of "crushing free speech" after the country passed a law requiring online streaming services be subject to regulatory controls.