Kushner, Iger to buy Lakers for record $12.5B

Joshua Kushner, the 41-year-old founder of Thrive Capital, has announced a landmark deal to buy the Los Angeles Lakers alongside former Disney CEO Bob Iger for $12.5 billion. The sale, contingent on approval from the NBA's Board of Governors, would mark the largest sale price for a professional sports team in U.S. history.

Kushner built his reputation as a venture investor after founding Thrive Capital at age 26 in 2011. His firm has backed some of the most valuable startups of the past decade, including Instagram, Spotify, and OpenAI. When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman first learned that Kushner was interested in investing, Altman told him the company was anything but a sure bet. Nevertheless, Thrive has invested more than $2 billion in OpenAI since its inception. Most recently, it committed roughly $1 billion in December at a $285 billion valuation. OpenAI is now valued at around $895 billion, up from $157 billion just under two years ago when Kushner spoke to Fortune about his initial investment thesis.

At the November 2024 Fortune Global Forum in New York City, Kushner revealed the two core reasons behind his OpenAI conviction: belief in the person running the company and a gut instinct that it would endure. "Since day one as a firm, we have been very much oriented towards being extremely concentrated in people and ideas," he said, emphasizing that the founders and executives steering companies often make or break long-term success. He also cited the investment philosophies of Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet, noting that Thrive believes in "the power of compounding" and holds companies "for a very long period of time." He described OpenAI as a rare holding—like "Fifth Avenue," a jewel to own for decades.

Altman has praised Kushner's investment style, telling Fortune's Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell: "Josh makes high-conviction bets on high-quality companies and founders, and he doesn't care too much about what other investors think." The two first met in 2011 and reconnected in 2022 at a closed-door event for tech CEOs in Arizona. Altman had been tracking Kushner's loyalty to founders across splashy startups including Slack, Instacart, and payment giant Stripe, even during difficult periods.

The Lakers deal builds on an existing partnership between Kushner and Iger. Iger began working with Thrive Capital in September 2022, and the venture capital firm already holds minority stakes in the San Francisco Giants and the Miami Heat. Kushner previously owned a piece of the Memphis Grizzlies. The pair have also been connected to a possible NBA expansion team in Las Vegas. Thrive was most recently valued at $12 billion, giving Kushner, who holds a majority stake, an estimated net worth of $5.2 billion—making him the wealthiest member of his prominent family.