This Sunday’s Super Bowl in Silicon Valley will see the Patriots face the Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium, an event packed with tech wealth. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan is expected to attend, as is Apple’s Tim Cook, who has become a regular since Apple Music began sponsoring the halftime show.
Venture capitalist Venky Ganesan of Menlo Ventures offered a colorful quote to the New York Times, describing the Bay Area Super Bowl as “tech billionaires who got picked last in gym class paying $50,000 to pretend they’re friends with the guys who got picked first.” He added, “And for the record, I, too, was picked last in gym class.”
Ganesan could likely afford such a ticket. His firm went all-in on Anthropic, establishing a $100 million fund with the AI company in summer 2024 to invest in other AI startups. Menlo Ventures has also participated in multiple funding rounds for Anthropic itself. Anthropic is reportedly expected to close a $20 billion round of funding next week at a post-money valuation of $350 billion.
Tickets are extraordinarily expensive, averaging almost $7,000 according to the Times, though some last-minute seats were available for closer to $3,600. Only a quarter of tickets go to the general public, with the rest distributed to NFL teams. The largest group of ticket buyers, at 27%, is coming from Washington State for the Seahawks, a franchise with one Super Bowl win compared to the Patriots’ six titles, all with Tom Brady.
The game has also sparked a competition of AI ads, with Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, and Meta all running spots about whose AI is best for customers. Their respective CEOs may show up, as most have homes within an hour of the stadium. Other than Amazon’s Andy Jassy, who splits his time between Seattle and Santa Monica, all live nearby.
This marks only the third time the Bay Area has hosted the Super Bowl. The first was in 1985 at Stanford Stadium, where the 49ers beat the Dolphins. The second took place ten years ago at Levi’s Stadium, when the Broncos beat the Panthers.