Sherwood News

The NFL just opened itself up to some very deep-pocketed investors

After all, there are only so many billionaires to buy teams

8/28/24 8:58AM

Yesterday, a special meeting of the 32 NFL team owners approved a measure allowing select private equity firms to purchase up to a 10% stake in a team, loosening a long-standing ownership restriction.

The move comes as NFL franchises reach stratospheric valuations, with the Dallas Cowboys — a team that hasn't clinched a Super Bowl since 1996 — recently becoming the first team to reach a $10 billion valuation, per Sportico.

Allowing pooled institutional investment seems like a no-brainer. After all, there are only so many billionaires capable of buying teams, with the average NFL franchise now worth a staggering ~$6 billion.

By opening the doors to private equity, the NFL is unlocking a treasure trove of capital: according to data compiled by S&P Global, private equity and venture capital funds currently hold a record $2.6 trillion in uncommitted capital, often referred to as "dry powder".

This enormous sum is burning a hole in the pockets of some firms. After convincing investors to entrust them with their money, which many PE shops did very successfully during massive fundraising efforts in 2020-2021, they then have to actually do something with it — people don’t typically like paying management fees while their money is parked on the sidelines.

However, faced with only being able to build a 10% stake in a team, a hypothetical investment of ~$600 million would barely scratch the surface for the largest funds. Investing in multiple teams might help them deliver the impact they want, with the new NFL rules allowing funds to invest in up to 6 individual teams.

Nate Becker

20h

Paramount is doing everything except the one thing that could give its Warner Bros. bid a chance of success

Warner Bros. says “more than 93%” of its shareholders have rejected Paramount. That’s probably not going to change substantially unless Paramount boosts its offer.

Streamers continued retreating from original shows in 2025

The death of “peak TV” has not been exaggerated, per a new report from Luminate.

Max Knoblauch1/21/26

Retail display of Takis snack food in various spicy flavors in Target store, Queens, New York

America’s love for spicy food and mouth-tingling sauces has surged, but are we approaching “peak heat”?

Takis doesn’t think so, as it searches for a “Chief Intensity Officer.”

Claire Yubin Oh1/21/26

Tom Jones

reduced to tiers

1/21/26

Netflix made $1.5 billion from advertising last year, about 3% of its total revenue

The figure rose more than 2.5x last year, per the company.

Tom Jones1/20/26

OpenAI’s ARR reached over $20 billion in 2025, CFO says

Sam Altman’s $500 billion artificial intelligence behemoth hit a major financial milestone last year, according to a new blog post over the weekend from OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, as the company confirmed it had hit a more than $20 billion annual revenue run rate at the end of 2025.

Elsewhere in the blog post, Friar spent time addressing the company’s shifting goals, referencing plans to “close the distance between where intelligence is advancing and how individuals, companies, and countries actually adopt and use it.” As has become customary in the AI company press release genre, the CFO was also keen to tout the unending growth of the business, writing:

“Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.”
“Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.”

And, perhaps most importantly for current backers and those keeping an eye on the private company before its rumored mega IPO:

“Revenue followed the same curve growing 3X year over year, or 10X from 2023 to 2025: $2B ARR in 2023, $6B in 2024, and $20B+ in 2025. This is never-before-seen growth at such scale.”

That latest figure has certainly set tongues in the tech world wagging, just as the company announced it would begin rolling out ads to free and ChatGPT Go users. It also puts the chatbot giant a fair way ahead of competitors like Anthropic, the company behind Claude.

OpenAI Anthropic ARR race — Sherwood News

A business that scales with the value of intelligence

“Both our Weekly Active User (WAU) and Daily Active User (DAU) figures continue to produce all-time highs. This growth is driven by a flywheel across compute, frontier research, products, and monetization.”
“Compute grew 3X year over year or 9.5X from 2023 to 2025: 0.2 GW in 2023, 0.6 GW in 2024, and ~1.9 GW in 2025.”