The people who spent a decade telling you software eats the world have started buying the things software can’t eat. Basketball teams. A casino company. A children’s sticker business. The Journal’s Kate Clark calls it the hunt for AI-proof assets — businesses built around human experiences that a chatbot can’t replace — and the buyer list reads like a Sand Hill Road reunion.
Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, is among the investors who recently took stakes in the San Francisco Giants and in the $12.5 billion deal that made the Los Angeles Lakers the most valuable sports team ever. Jeff Bezos is part of a consortium buying a minority stake in Liverpool Football Club alongside Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, valuing the club above $7 billion. Marc Stad of Dragoneer Investment Group is acquiring a controlling stake in the Minnesota Timberwolves. A group led by OpenAI backer Vinod Khosla is buying the Seattle Seahawks. And Barry Diller’s People Inc. is negotiating to take over MGM Resorts (MGM) in a deal valuing the casino giant at more than $12 billion.
The thesis, in their words
Teams are scarce assets with durable fan bases and predictable media-rights revenue, and they carry significant tax advantages for wealthy owners. “People want to watch actual real humans play sports,” said Sudeep Ramnani, founder of 885 Capital and an investor in the Professional Fighters League. “It makes sense in the context of how the world is changing.” Harley Miller of Left Lane Capital, an early backer of Real American Freestyle, the wrestling league Hulk Hogan co-founded in 2025, was blunter: “These are hard assets, and they are difficult to replicate. It’s not speculative stuff that is going to get mousetrapped by a new large language model release in a year.” And he isn’t collecting trophies: “We are looking to make venture-style returns,” meaning a multiple of the money in. Left Lane also backs the Pro Padel League, League One Volleyball, Blank Street Coffee and 7th Street Burger.
Beth Ferreira, a partner at Serena Ventures — the firm run by Serena Williams, which raised $111 million for its debut fund in 2022 — calls the category the “experience economy,” on the theory that the more of life happens behind a screen, the more a physical moment is worth. “We’re really looking for founders who are building where technology personalizes the experience but doesn’t replace the experience,” she said. The firm has looked at everything from travel startups to a curling league, and it backed StickerBox, a children’s toy company that Spin Master (TSX: TOY) bought in August at a valuation between $35 million and $50 million. “While it’s a counter bet against AI,” Ferreira said, “it’s part of the rise of AI.”
What you can’t buy
We agree with every word of that thesis, and a household can’t act on a single deal in it. A private stake in a basketball team is illiquid, unpriced — worth whatever the last billionaire paid — and subject to a risk with no analogue in a public security: the league office. The same day’s sports page has the worked example. The NBA stripped the Los Angeles Clippers of five first-round draft picks, fined the team $30 million and banned owner Steve Ballmer from league activities for a year. Jason Gay’s column calls it a doomsday hammer. An owner with a controlling stake just lost control, for a year, by decision of a commissioner. Try finding that in the risk factors of a 10-K.
The household version
The honest retail translation of “AI-proof” isn’t a franchise. It’s toll-collector cash flow you can own on Tuesday and sell on Wednesday: the businesses that get paid whether the winning model is American or Chinese, and that a chatbot can’t replicate because they’re made of steel, copper and dirt. Thursday made the point on its own. Gold rose 2.87% to $4,491.70, up 26% this year, on a day stocks rallied and the dollar fell — a real-asset bid running alongside the equity bid, not instead of it.
| Their AI-proof asset | The version you can actually own |
|---|---|
| A minority stake in a football club | Pipelines that charge rent on every molecule: Enterprise Products (EPD), Kinder Morgan (KMI), Energy Transfer (ET), MPLX (MPLX) |
| A controlling stake in an NBA team | Industrials paid on power, grid, cooling and flight hours: GE Aerospace (GE), GE Vernova (GEV), Vertiv (VRT), Quanta Services (PWR), EMCOR (EME) |
| A casino company | Gold and the ground under it: iShares Gold Trust (IAU), VanEck Gold Miners (GDX), Texas Pacific Land (TPL) |
| A children’s sticker company | Five hundred companies at one weight each: Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight (RSP) |
None of that is a forecast, and none of it is a trophy. It’s the same scarcity argument the venture crowd is making, run through a filter they don’t need and you do: can I see the price today, and can I get out on Wednesday without asking a commissioner?