In the AI world, money is losing its meaning and equity is the new safe haven: Vinod Khosla’s radical advice to Nikhil Kamath

Vinod Khosla, the second-richest Indian American, is a man brimming with wisdom. The co-founder of Sun Microsystems and now worth $7 billion in net worth, Khosla is now counted amongst some of the visionary venture capitalists, with a laser-sharp focus on the startup ecosystem globally.

In fact, as an example of Khosla’s vision one can cite a case from way back in 2015, a time when the world of startups, not just in India but also globally, was either in its nascent stage or practically non-existent, that Khosla, in a caustic attack aimed at fellow VCs, said that over 90% of VCs existing then have added no tangible value to the economy or the spirit of innovation. Going further, he had even claimed that 70% do not even add value to their own companies.

The reason behind this outburst? Well, it was because Khosla was trying to push the VC ecosystem to recognise the value of entrepreneurship, to see how valuable startups can become in the next few years. Now, looking back, one can even say that Khosla was prophetic in his surmise.

Appearing recently in the viral podcast with Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath , Khosla was able to unleash a bit of that prophetism this time as well, taking head-on the rising debate over the proliferation of artificial intelligence into our daily lives. Khosla minces no words in saying that AI has already percolated so deeply into our social systems that the day is not far when most of what we do today will be irrelevant. “We’ll see more change in the next 15 years than we’ve seen in the last 50,” Vinod says, adding that it is almost certain that within three to five years, AI will be able to perform a whopping 80% of the present existing jobs. Only a few will remain, and that is because of regulatory pressures.

So, what should we do? In Khosla’s world, the answer is simple: adapt. “If they are fast learners, they’ll adapt to the world as it changes. And that may be the most important characteristic of an entrepreneur,” he notes. “You have to optimise your career for flexibility, not a single profession,” he pithily points out.

But imagine the plight of a 22-year-old today. With AI taking over jobs on a scale never before seen, what career options stand to exist? Khosla’s answer is simple: “It almost doesn’t matter where you start.” Essentially, what Khosla is trying to say here is that in the world made flat by AI, real value no longer lies in specific jobs or disciplinary fields. Instead, it lies in constant adaptability. “Keeping your lens zoomed out for the widest angle is sort of the way to think about how you should go about your career,” Khosla told Kamath.

But Khosla, who is an investor in the Indian startup Sarvam AI, which is now building India’s answer to a global generative AI platform, told Kamath in the podcast that he is a firm believer in AI-led public services, especially in the field of education. “If every child in India has a free AI tutor… it’ll be better than the best education a rich person can offer,” Khosla points out, adding further that if AI were to take over the field of education, not only would it make learning inexpensive, but everyone will have an equal access to it, thereby enhancing our mental faculties even more.

But the impact of technology and AI can also be felt in the equity markets as well, and this is a fact Khosla is well-aware of. According to him, AI’s impact will also be profound when it comes to our relationship with money, and he pithily says: “Money will be worth a lot less.” But if that is the case, what should investors even do? Khosla offers a solution: in such a scenario, what becomes valuable are assets like equity. “Hold equity, not debt. Hold equity, not cash. Or real estate, not any other asset class,” he says.