The “picked last in gym class” kids get ready for the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is in Silicon Valley this Sunday, and the Patriots-Seahawks game at Levi’s Stadium will be full of tech money. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan is expected to be there. Apple’s Tim Cook, too. (He’s become a Super Bowl fixture since Apple Music began sponsoring the halftime show several years ago.)

Longtime VC Venky Ganesan of Menlo Ventures gave the New York Times a quote about the whole thing, saying the Super Bowl in the Bay Area is “tech billionaires picked last in gym class paying $50,000 to pretend they’re friends with the guys picked first.” Added Ganesan, “And for the record, I was also picked last in gym class.”

Ganesan could probably afford a $50,000 ticket if he had to. Menlo went all-in on Anthropic, setting up a $100 million fund with the AI ​​firm in the summer of 2024 to invest in other AI startups. The company has also participated in several rounds of funding for Anthropic itself, both through its flagship fund and through various special purpose vehicles. (Anthropic is expected to close a $20 billion round of funding next week at a post-money valuation of $350 billion.)

Tickets are expensive, averaging nearly $7,000 according to the Times (with some last-minute seats still available on StubHub for nearly $3,600, according to a quick look at the ticket reseller site). Only a quarter goes to the general public. The rest is distributed to NFL teams. Of all ticket buyers, the largest group (27%) comes from Washington State for the Seahawks, who have won just one Super Bowl in franchise history compared to the Patriots’ six titles, all with Tom Brady at quarterback.

GoogleOpenAI, Humane, Amazonand After are splashing out on competing ads about whose AI is best for customers, so maybe their respective CEOs will show up, too. Except for Amazon’s Andy Jassy, ​​who reportedly splits his time between Seattle and Santa Monica, all have homes within an hour or so of Sunday’s game.

This is just the third time the Bay Area has hosted the Super Bowl. The first time was in 1985 at Stanford Stadium, the original football stadium at Stanford University, where the 49ers beat the Dolphins. The second came 10 years ago at Levi’s Stadium, when the Broncos beat the Panthers.