Todd Boehly's asset management giant, Eldridge Industries, which oversees $75 billion in assets, is now rolling out artificial intelligence across its entire investment portfolio, encompassing entities like Chelsea Football Club and A24 Studios. This move comes as investment firms race to integrate AI, aiming to protect their holdings from the disruptive potential of the technology. The billionaire investor outlined the group's strategy in an interview, emphasizing that companies with proprietary data, physical assets, and irreplaceable intellectual property are best positioned to weather the AI wave.
Eldridge plans to have its portfolio companies proactively seize AI opportunities while also overhauling the firm's own investment processes. Chelsea is using AI to analyze player injury data, aiming to reduce recovery times, while A24 has partnered with Google DeepMind in a $75 million research deal to explore AI applications in filmmaking. Co-founder Tony Minella, who has led Eldridge's AI strategy for the past two years, noted that the initiative requires extensive preparation, including equipping staff with tools and retraining them to reimagine workflows.
Minella and Boehly, who previously worked together at Guggenheim Partners, founded Eldridge in 2015. The firm's investments span defense, media, finance, and sports, with over 100 companies, and Boehly also serves as chairman of Chelsea. Their strategy mirrors that of other investment groups seeking to leverage AI tools against the threat posed by nimble AI startups, which have already disrupted many software companies and portfolio assets.
Major institutions are forming partnerships with leading AI developers: Blackstone and Apollo Global Management have teamed up with Anthropic, while Bain Capital, TPG, and Brookfield Asset Management have joint ventures with OpenAI. Eldridge, however, took a different path, acquiring a 50% stake in European AI firm Sudolabs. This move gives Eldridge and its portfolio companies access to a team of about 70 AI specialists, including 40 engineers, for various projects.
Eldridge had previously invested in AI-driven companies like cloud computing firm CoreWeave, but the Sudolabs acquisition is aimed at building in-house AI capabilities. Boehly and Minella stated that the deal will streamline due diligence and other investment processes, using AI to improve efficiency and reduce repetitive work. While Eldridge had previously worked with Anthropic on similar projects, it chose to buy into Sudolabs partly to avoid over-reliance on a single U.S. AI supplier.
"No single source of supply is a safe bet in any field," Boehly said. "Our supply chains and energy infrastructure have already learned this lesson, and the geopolitical situation in the Strait of Hormuz has taught everyone." He added, "We are in the credit business, and as credit professionals, we know the risks of being tied to a single supplier."
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