Vinod Khosla returns to Bay Area as OpenAI governance fight intensifies

Vinod Khosla flew from Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey to Hayward Executive Airport in California early on June 4, logging a five-hour-and-seventeen-minute Gulfstream V flight that arrived before dawn. Hayward sits just across the bay from his Portola Valley home and the Sand Hill Road offices of Khosla Ventures, making this a routine return to the Bay Area after a string of East Coast stops that included Teterboro and Washington Dulles over the preceding days.

The same week Khosla lands in the Bay Area, OpenAI — the company he helped fund as an early backer — is facing a pivotal moment. Per a Reuters report from late May, OpenAI’s nonprofit board is expected to vote this week on whether to restructure its governance, a move that would dilute the voting power of the original nonprofit directors and shift control toward for-profit investors. Khosla, whose venture firm holds a notable stake in the company, has a direct interest in how that vote shakes out.

Khosla’s flight pattern over the last month shows a familiar coast-hopping rhythm: he flew from Newark to San Jose on May 16, then made several hops between the Bay Area and Southern California before heading east again in late May. The return on June 4, timed to a board governance vote at one of his most consequential portfolio companies, looks less like a homecoming and more like a shareholder keeping his seat warm.