Khosla Ventures Taps Ex-OpenAI Executive Tal Broda for Infrastructure Investing — WSJ
By Sarah Klearman
Khosla Ventures has hired a former OpenAI executive who helped create the infrastructure needed to run the artificial-intelligence models powering ChatGPT at scale.
Tal Broda, former vice president of compute at OpenAI, joined Khosla Ventures as a partner in early June, he said in an interview. Broda spent two years leading the teams that built and operated the hardware and software serving OpenAI's models before leaving the company in spring 2025. He was previously vice president of engineering for venture-capital firm Paradigm and head of platform for financial services firm Citadel Securities before that.
Broda said he has so far been involved in a range of investments at Khosla Ventures, but will largely focus on AI infrastructure. That means everything from the energy and software to train and run AI as well as the tools and layers needed to "just deliver AI to the rest of the world, both enterprise and consumer," he said.
Vinod Khosla, who served as the founding CEO of computer maker Sun Microsystems, launched his eponymous firm in 2004 after close to two decades at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins.
Khosla Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies, has made investments in companies like fintech Stripe, on-demand delivery platform DoorDash and aerospace manufacturer Rocket Lab. In 2019, the firm became the first venture investor to back OpenAI, according to its website.
Broda joins Khosla Ventures as venture-capital investment in hardware and AI infrastructure has boomed in recent years. Annual AI infrastructure deal value grew from $3.8 billion in 2016 to a projected $28.6 billion in 2026, according to PitchBook data from the first half of this year.
Vinod Khosla described Khosla Ventures in an interview as having always been more technical than most other venture-capital firms. He said it has continued making hard-tech investments over the last 15 years, choosing not to abandon the space "when things were hard."
Khosla said Broda's own technical background makes him both a discerning investor and someone portfolio companies are drawn to.
"The entrepreneurs-they want to work with him," Khosla said. "One of them, last month, said, 'I prefer working with Tal than other VCs.' And that is a great winning strategy."
At OpenAI, Broda oversaw more than a dozen teams. He helped lead the monthslong training of the GPT-4.5 model and was involved in setting up the $500 billion Stargate project to bring more AI infrastructure to the U.S. He said he also participated in the development of OpenAI's first custom inference chip, Jalapeño.
Broda said he enjoyed building teams at OpenAI. "I felt like going into investing, in venture specifically, would allow me to do that not just within a company, but across the whole industry," he said.
Broda, who lives in Miami, said his family thought he might be done working after leaving OpenAI. He said he spent much of his time afterward doing advisory work with-and making angel investments in-a network of startups. But the current moment in technology has kept him interested and wanting to participate: "It's not the best time to sit this one out," he said.
Broda spends significant time in New York and Israel, as well as the Bay Area, Khosla Ventures said. He will remain based in Miami and commute to Menlo Park and San Francisco.
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.
Write to Sarah Klearman at sarah.klearman@wsj.com