Vinod Khosla, ChatGPT developer OpenAI CEO Sam Altman offer personal cash to help startups

Ace venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and ChatGPT developer OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman have offered personal capital to help startups after the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse.

Khosla said he is offering personal loans at borrowing cost to companies in the Khosla Ventures portfolio.

"We are talking to 100+ portfolio companies assessing their critical needs and plan to bridge where we are a lead or major investor at our cost of borrowing only or under special circumstances where a company's other investors can't respond," he said in a tweet late on Sunday.

Khosla said that they offer "no terms" by not using our Limited Partnership (LP) capital.


"Personal loans going at our borrowing cost to our companies. We are covering those firms that can't because of their structure or are small. Need other large VC firms to also step up, especially those taking home millions in fees," he posted.

Altman said that "today is a good day to offer emergency cash to your startups that need it for payroll or whatever. no docs, no terms, just send money".

"It's hard for me to imagine depositors actually losing money here, but so stressful in the meantime," he posted.


Winnie CEO and co-founder Sara Mauskopf tweeted that a part of their agreement with SVB was that "we had to use their credit card".

"That got shut off this weekend. When we tried to move those charges to Brex they also blocked them because our backing bank account with Brex was SVB. Hence the use of personal cards," she posted.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said that the federal government will not provide a bailout for SVB's investors after the bank was abruptly shuttered, but said financial regulators are "concerned" about the impact to depositors and working to address their needs. - IANS