Breakdown Of Seahawks Ownership Shares

The sale of the Seahawks franchise was officially approved and finalized just before the start of the team’s 2026 defense of their championship title, and the announcement revealed that members of the runner-up bidding group ended up joining the winning ownership group. Embracing the spirit of Seattle fans, colloquially referred to as the 12s, the new ownership group now consists of 12 co-owners, according to a report from The Seattle Times.

There’s actually, technically, 14 members of the investing group, with the report perhaps counting the three private equity firms involved in the deal — Carlyle, Dynasty, and Sixth Street — as one co-owner. Seattle is the seventh NFL franchise to incorporate private equity into its ownership makeup. In fact, Sixth Street owns a three-percent stake in the Patriots, giving them a stake on both sides of the NFL’s season opener next Wednesday. The Falcons, Chargers, Bills, Browns, and Dolphins are the other five teams in which private equity firms are invested.

Mark Stevens, an Nvidia board member who was formerly a Sequoia Capital partner, has been identified as the second-largest investor in the group, after controlling owner Vinod Khosla and family. Stevens is also a minority investor in the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. The next-highest investor is Penny Pritzker, founder of the investment firm PSP Partners and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce for the Obama administration’s second term. Pritzker is the sister of current Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker.

Next is the Aramburuzabala family, who are behind Grupo Modelo, which sold to Anheuser-Busch for about $20 billion 13 years ago. One member of the family, María Asunción Aramburuzabala, is well-versed in these types of deals as the CEO of investment firm Tresalia Capital out of Mexico. Behind the Aramburuzabalas is Samir Kaul, a founding partner and managing director at Khosla Ventures, where he works with Khosla.

Continuing on, next is Val Blavatnik, a special advisor at Access Technology Ventures, founded by his father, billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, who is also a majority owner of DAZN, a sports streaming service. The younger Blavatnik is also a special advisor to the CEO of Warner Music Group, where he previously held the position of senior director of business development for the global music publishing department.

Following Blavatnik is Sheryl Sokoloff, whose husband, Jonathan, is a managing partner at private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners. She and her husband are known as active philanthropists in Los Angeles. Next is Gonzalo Hevia Baillères, founder of the AI logistics company LOK. After LOK merged with Chazki in 2024, he became CEO of investment company HBeyond. Baillères’ grandfather, Alberto Baillères, was a Mexican billionaire who also formed Grupo BAL.

Next on the list is Jesse van der Werf, president and CEO at Heavy Metal Equipment and Rentals in Canada and owner and CEO of SIPP vodka. Sunny Gupta was listed next, after van der Werf. Gupta co-founded Thira, an AI startup, works as the executive chairman of Smartsheet, a work management platform, and is a general partner at Generative Capital, a tech-focused private equity firm. Last is Nader Naini, a managing partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm solely invested in the healthcare industry.

The exact ownership stakes were not disclosed in the announcement. NFL ownership rules require Khosla, the 71-year-old cofounder of Sun Microsystems, to own at least a 30-percent stake as controlling owner. Other ownership rules limit the investment group to 25 members and limits the percentage of ownership private equity can collectively own at 10 percent. Per Ben Horney and Mark Maske of Front Office Sports, Sixth Street has a three-percent stake in the Seahawks, equal to their stake in the Patriots, while Carlyle and Dynasty’s collective stake amounts to about three percent, as well.

Khosla and the Seahawks used the new ownership rules to their advantage in securing the winning bid. The heavy investments coming from AI-focused investors and venture capitalists provide some insight into the potential future of sports franchise ownership.