Billionaire Vinod Khosla to donate half his fortune
The donation comes immediately after the Khoslas joined The Giving Pledge, a programme that encourages the planet's richest to help their fellow beings in need
Pioneering cleantech venture capitalist and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla and his wife Neeru have agreed to donate half of their estimated $1.4 billion fortune to charity.
[caption id="attachment_3015" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Big heart: Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, smiles during the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference in Dana Point. Mario Anzuoni/Reuters"]
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In an announcement made on Thursday, the Khoslas and nine other families joined The Giving Pledge, a program founded by Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates that encourages the world's wealthiest people to commit to life-long philanthropy. Currently, 69 individuals have joined the pledge, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and filmmaker George Lucas.
Khosla, 56, started his venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures in 2004 after a stint at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, another Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Khosla Ventures invests in cleantech and information technology, and Khosla has expressed particular interest in funding clean technology that passes the "Chindia test," or technologies that have the greatest potential for addressing climate change through widespread adoptability in both countries.
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