In an interview published Sunday, Microsoft founder and Chairman Bill Gates tells Cnet News’s Ina Fried that he has invested in Vinod Khosla’s renewable energy fund, Khosla Ventures.
About Khosla, Gates says:
He is backing some great entrepreneurs. I get some exposure to them as part of that. Innovation is called for in a big way.
Gates other renewable energy investments have been in algae fuel company Sapphire Energy. Along with former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold, he’s also backing TerraPower, a developer of breakthrough nuclear power plants, according to Cnet News.
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When it comes to clean tech, Khosla, who back in September closed two new funds with more than $1 billion in capital commitment, tends to go for the cutting-edge. It currently backs LS9, a developer of enzymes-based diesel fuel. It’s also invested in HCL CleanTech, which has developed a process that turns cellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars. Last month it led a $13.2 million investment in Danotek Motion Technologies, a maker of generators and components to supply wind energy to the power grid.
It’s not been smooth sailing for all of Khosla Ventures’s investments. Earlier this month AltaRock Energy, a geothermal developer that’s also backed by Google, gave notice to the Department of Energy that it would abandoned its Geysers drilling project.