This week on the GeekWire Podcast: The NBA suspends former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for a year and hits the Clippers with $30 million in fines and five lost draft picks over allegedly sham endorsement deals for Kawhi Leonard, drawing comparisons to the Microsoft antitrust era.

A new Redfin report says San Francisco’s housing market is booming on AI wealth while Seattle slumps, with the Bay Area-to-Seattle migration pipeline nearly dried up.

And the Seahawks sale to the Khosla family officially closes, ending the Paul Allen era, with two familiar Seattle tech names surfacing in the new ownership group.

Plus, the return of the GeekWire Trivia Challenge.

Related Stories and Links

Ballmer / Clippers

• NBA suspends Steve Ballmer for 1 year, fines L.A. Clippers $30M over salary-cap scheme
• NBA announces penalties and findings arising from investigation of LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard — NBA
• Read the NBA’s Report on Clippers, Kawhi Leonard, and Aspiration — Front Office Sports
• NBA announces punishments for Clippers after Kawhi inquiry — ESPN
• The Briefcase, Ballmer’s Social Network and Aspiration’s House of Cards: Kawhi-Gate Part VII — Pablo Torre Finds Out

Redfin / SF vs. Seattle housing

• AI wealth fuels San Francisco’s housing boom while tech layoffs weigh down Seattle
• Uber laying off 93 Washington state workers, hitting engineer and management roles at Seattle office
• Qualtrics cut 117 jobs tied to Seattle headquarters, new filing shows

Seahawks sale

• Two familiar Seattle tech figures turn up on Seahawks co-owner list as sale is finalized
• ‘I’m the 12th man … I want to represent that’: New Seahawks co-owner with deep Seattle tech roots
• What to know about Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley legend whose family is buying the Seahawks
• Apptio co-founders reunite to launch enterprise AI startup Thira with $21M in funding led by Madrona

Editor’s note: Join us on Wednesday, Sept. 16 for a live recording of the GeekWire podcast. Co-hosts John Cook and Todd Bishop will discuss the week’s news and interview Zillow’ Senior Vice President of engineering, Toby Roberts, about how AI is changing the real estate business. Details and tickets here.

Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Sunny Gupta has been a diehard Seattle Seahawks fan for almost 20 years, hosting tailgates and sitting in the exact same club-level seats with his family and friends since 2007. Now, the longtime Seattle tech entrepreneur is taking his place in the franchise’s new ownership group as a self-described “fan No. 1.”

With the sale of the team to the family of Silicon Valley billionaire investor Vinod Khosla finalized on Thursday, Gupta’s name appeared on a newly revealed list of co-owners. Nader Naini, managing partner at Seattle-based healthcare private equity firm Frazier Healthcare Partners, is also among the group.

For Gupta, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up — and a dream come true.

“I would have never considered investing or being in ownership in sports other than the Seahawks,” Gupta told GeekWire in an interview following Thursday’s announcement. “This is a dream come true of something I love so much. The city I love so much, fan base, the team.

“I’m the 12th man,” he added. “I want to represent that as a part of the ownership group.”

Gupta is best known in Pacific Northwest tech circles as the co-founder and former CEO of Bellevue-based enterprise software maker Apptio, which he guided through an IPO, a private equity buyout, and an eventual $4.6 billion sale to IBM in 2023. He recently served as executive chair at Smartsheet during its $8.4 billion acquisition, and earlier this summer launched his fourth venture-backed startup, an enterprise AI company called Thira, with $21 million in seed funding.

But fall Sundays are strictly about football for Gupta, who describes himself and his family as “complete supporters, rabid fans” since 2007. He estimates he’s missed two games in that time.

Together with his wife, son, and daughter, the family holds five season tickets. They’ve sat in the same seats alongside a tight-knit crew of friends for nearly two decades — and don’t plan to change things with the perks of ownership.

“When we were going through this, this was like the biggest debate in our family,” Gupta said. “We’ve never been suite owners. We like being in our club section behind the Seahawks sideline, and that’s where we love watching the game. All our friends are there … that’s our community.”

While Gupta hasn’t directly partnered on a startup with Vinod Khosla, their paths have frequently crossed in venture capital circles. Over a career raising funds for four separate startups, Gupta noted Khosla Ventures was always on the “short list” of firms entrepreneurs hope to align with. Joining forces on the Seahawks deal presented an ideal way to combine those two worlds.

“Seattle is mostly a tech story and it’s a Seahawks story,” Gupta said. “The ability to have these two worlds combine is like a dream.”

Beyond his personal fandom, Gupta expressed strong confidence in the team’s current leadership. He noted that he caught up this week on the final episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks in anticipation of Thursday’s sale completion, coming away energized by the culture built by general manager John Schneider and second-year head coach Mike Macdonald.

“I was fired up last night on just what a great organization it is and the amazing job Mike and John do,” Gupta said. “The ability to continue the winning culture and just continue to win and support our fan base and community — that’s what it’s all about.”

The sale of the Seattle Seahawks to the Khosla family officially closed on Thursday, completing a historic ownership transition for the NFL franchise. But a small surprise emerged in the final paperwork.

Nestled among a newly revealed co-owner lineup were a couple familiar names for the Pacific Northwest tech community: former Apptio CEO and longtime Seattle entrepreneur Sunny Gupta, and Nader Naini, managing partner at Seattle-based healthcare private equity firm Frazier Healthcare Partners.

Under the final transaction terms announced by the team, Vinod Khosla — the billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist who founded Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures — will serve as chair, while his wife Neeru Khosla steps in as controlling owner and president of the Seahawks Charitable Foundation. Their son Neal Khosla takes on the role of vice chair.

The conclusion of the sale brings to an end an era of ownership under the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, while keeping the franchise’s deep ties to the technology sector intact.

Gupta and Naini appear on a list of co-owners that spans prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists, global private equity firms, institutional sports investors, and international business dynasties. They include:

• Mark Stevens, former Sequoia Capital partner and longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was an early investor in Nvidia, Google, and PayPal.
• Samir Kaul, founding partner and managing director at Khosla Ventures, leading investments across deep tech, sustainability, and health.
• Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Commerce Secretary, founder of PSP Partners, and former Hyatt Hotels executive.
• Sixth Street, global investment firm with extensive growth equity and tech investment practices.
• Carlyle and Dynasty Equity, major private equity firms, including sports-focused investor Dynasty Equity.
• Aramburuzabala Family, prominent Mexican investment family behind Tresalia Capital.
• Gonzalo Hevia Baillères, Mexican business leader who is currently the CEO and founder of HBeyond.
• Val Blavatnik, investor associated with global holding company Access Industries.
• Sheryl Sokoloff and Jesse van der Werf, private investors with backgrounds across industry and machinery services.

When news of the Allen estate’s decision to sell the team first broke, speculation ran rampant — including on GeekWire — about which deep-pocketed tech titan with Seattle ties might step up with almost $10 billion.

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, MacKenzie Scott, Satya Nadella, Rich Barton, Melinda French Gates — the list of mostly Seattle billionaires who took a pass was lengthy. The Khosla family emerged victorious, but at least brought along a couple heavyweights to keep the local tech flag flying.

Gupta brings deep roots in the region’s software ecosystem. He co-founded Bellevue-based enterprise software maker Apptio, guiding it through a public listing, a private equity buyout, and an eventual $4.6 billion sale to IBM in 2023. Gupta served as executive chair at Bellevue-based Smartsheet through its recent $8.4 billion private equity acquisition and launched enterprise AI startup Thira earlier this summer with $21 million in seed funding led by Madrona.

Naini grounds the group in local healthcare private equity and regional sports governance. He joined Seattle-based Frazier Healthcare Partners in 1991 and has led the firm since 1995, helping scale it to manage more than $11 billion in institutional capital globally. Based in Seattle, Naini serves on the board of the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers baseball team and is active with regional community organizations, including Bellevue-based senior living developer Aegis Living.

The Seahawks will formally introduce the Khosla family via press conference next Wednesday at 11 a.m. PT at Lumen Field. The team opens the 2026 season and defense of its Super Bowl title that night against the New England Patriots.