Supermax to Superintelligence: AI Researcher Salaries Now Rival Pro Athletes
Just days after winning the 2025 NBA Championship, the Oklahoma City Thunder signed its star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to a $285M supermax extension contract through the 2030 season - paying him $71M+ per year. This move officially set a new record for the highest single-season average salary in NBA history.
While this should’ve shattered most headlines across finance, this was not the most eye-popping contract story of the week.
AI researchers are now rivaling NBA super-star compensation, with Meta reportedly poaching top talent for $100M+ annual packages.
So let’s talk about it.
Meta Is Casting Its Net Like a Sports Franchise
Following its $14B stake in Scale AI, Meta installed founder Alexandr Wang as Chief AI Officer, alongside Nat Friedman steering “Meta’s Superintelligence Lab”
Meta has made at least 10+ offers to elite OpenAI, DeepMind, and other staffers, with comp packages up to $300M over four years, including $100M+ in year-one vesting
Wang’s recent tweet revealed that Meta has successfully recruited key members responsible for creating ChatGPT, o3/o4 mini, Claude, Gemini, and Waymo’s models.
What This Means
Meta is now treating elite AI talent like franchise players - offering not just big money, but multi-year commitments, retention bonuses, and all the drama you’d expect from an offseason NBA power grab.
Why Are AI Salaries Mirroring Athlete Economics?
Scarcity: Only a few thousand AI researchers globally qualify for frontier roles. Meta reportedly targets just ~50 superstar hires, meaning each offer is precious - and expensive
Impact per Head: A $300M equity package only makes sense if the resulting infrastructure unlocks billions in revenue. With AI, it can - and does. This mirrors how superstars unlock broadcast rights, ticket sales, and merchandising value.
Personal Recruiters = Agents: Just like top athletes, elite researchers now use hiring brokers and recruiters - sometimes third-party agents - to negotiate compensation, stock vesting, retention clauses, and deferral structures. It’s no longer the founder-versus-callee dynamic - it’s negotiated, brokered, packaged.
Free Agency & Churn Risk: Meta’s poaching of OpenAI talent - a move that OpenAI leadership described as “breaking into our home” - highlights retention fragility. Similar to free agency, losing one superstar researcher now carries risk akin to losing a franchise quarterback: derailed timelines, morale hits, and IP uncertainty.
Our Take: Do AI Researchers Deserve Athlete Pay?
Hell yes.
A small group of AI researchers already wield outsized influence over trillion-dollar markets. And that influence is only growing.
The comparisons aren’t accidental - they’re structural. Meta doesn’t see top engineers as headcount. It sees them as organizational centerpieces, worthy of athlete-level investment.
Because today, a game-changing researcher can shift a product roadmap, move the market, and unlock new consumer behavior - at the same scale as a LeBron, Steph, or Shai.
Sports-Tech Market Activity: Investors & Deals
Funds
Wisdom Ventures, a VC firm investing in tech-enabled wellbeing, secures $16M for first close of second fund (June 27th)
Follows Wisdom’s $10M debut fund that backed OpenAI, Anthropic, and Function Health, among others
Fund II targets $1M-$5M investments in ~35 early-stage startups focused on emotional intelligence, wellbeing, and human-centered tech
Backed by Reid Hoffman, Evan Sharp, Stewart Butterfield, among other high-profile investors [Athletech]
Behold Ventures, a VC firm investing in early-stage Nordic and European video games startups, closes debut fund at $58.2M (July 1st)
$21M already deployed across 18 startups, including Dead Astronauts, Seven Stars, and Blue Scarab Entertainment
Fund surpassed its $52.9M target, securing capital from Europe (54%), Asia (44%), and North America (2%) [GamesBeat]
Venture Capital
Othership, a wellness startup offering performance sauna and private ice baths, raises $11.3M in funding, targeting U.S. growth (June 26th)
Follows $8M Series A led by Vine Ventures, January 2023
Secured $11.3M via SAFE, with $7.1M from 43 US-based investors
Funds to expand NYC presence, including a second location in Williamsburg this summer [TheLogic]
Yaspa, a sports gambling disruptor offering instant payments and identity verification services for open banking, raised $12M in funding backed by Discerning Capital (July 2nd)
Funds fuel US expansion; new Atlanta office, hiring local team
Discerning aims to back Yaspa’s A2A payments as a gambling payments disruptor
Investment led by Discerning Capital, including $10M+ direct investment [Yaspa]
CRED, a predictive Intelligence platform for sports & entertainment enterprises, exits stealth, raises $15M in Seed funding (June 30th)
Funding will drive expansion beyond sports into broader enterprise sectors, fueling product development, data models, and expanding GTM team
Investment led by defy.vc; other investors include HOF Capital, Alumni Ventures, and SilverCircle Ventures, among others [FinSMEs]
Edge Sound Research, an audio innovation tech startup for sports venues and live entertainment environments, secures backing from USTA Ventures (June 27th)
Edge raised $2.7M to date, including $1.9M seed round, March 2024
USTA’s third investment following backing of PlayReplay and Court16
Edge, already backed by the NBA, has piloted tech with MLS, Pacers, Twins, Kings, and Wells Fargo Center [SBJ]
Pick-Roll, a social app that connects users with basketball pickup games and communities, receives backing from 2006 NBA No. 1 draft pick Andrea Bargnani (July 2nd)
Fueling European expansion and future U.S. entry
Marks Bargnani’s first sports tech venture after prior private equity and VC activity [SBJ]
M&A and Investments
Warner Music Group, Bain Capital collaborate for launch of $1.2B music catalog investment venture (July 1st)
WMG to oversee marketing, distribution, and administration of acquired assets
Equal equity from both firms to acquire recorded and publishing catalogs
Goldman Sachs and Fifth Third Bank acting as joint lead arrangers [WarnerMusic]
Football.Enterprises, a football (soccer) investment platform, launches $150M bond offering alongside $50M Series A raise, expected to close by Q2 2025 (June 3rd)
$150M bond offering to fund global club acquisitions, infrastructure, and operations
In talks to acquire clubs in France, Denmark, England; backed by prior $250M strategic investment [Football.Enterprises]
Saudi Arabia’s PIF subsidiary to acquire $20M stake in Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) (July 3rd)
SURJ, reportedly set to take $20M stake of PTO’s broader funding round
Follows $10M March investment from Cordillera; Series C raise expected soon
Builds on SURJ’s 2025 deals with DAZN ($1B stake) and Kings League soccer [SportsPro]
Mortgage businessman Dan Gilbert taps Allen & Co. considering sale of up to 15% stake in Cleveland Cavaliers at $3.95B valuation (June 26th)
Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia are the latest to be awarded new WNBA franchises for record $250M expansion fees (June 30th)
Average WNBA team valuation has surged 180% in a year, now $269M according to Sportico
All new teams backed by NBA ownership groups, continuing league expansion momentum [Sportico]
Haslam Sports Group sells 10% Columbus Crew stake at $900M club valuation (July 1st)
Deal sees existing partners, the Edwards family, increase ownership to 30%
HSG retains 70% stake; Crew value up from $730M in Jan. to $900M in this sale [Sportico]
Telecommunications company Rogers Communications acquires BCE’s 37.5% stake in MLSE for $3.45B, eyes minority sale or IPO (July 2nd)
Deal lifts Rogers’ stake to 75%, valuing company’s sports assets at $12B+
Rogers exploring minority stake sale via private equity infusion
Portfolio includes Maple Leafs ($3.66B), Raptors ($4.66B), Toronto FC ($725M), and Blue Jays; valuations according to Sportico [Sportico]
Photo Creds: New 3v3 AI-powered robot soccer league in Beijing took place this past week.
Strategic Ventures
China stages inaugural ‘ROBO League Robot Football’ tournament, an AI humanoid robot soccer showdown (June 29th)
Event serves as a preview for upcoming Beijing World Humanoid Robot Games
Four university teams of autonomous robots competed in Beijing’s first AI-driven 3v3 soccer matches, supplied by Booster Robotics [SBJ]
Microsoft partners with Premier League for cloud and AI partnership, expands Big 12 partnership to utilize Copilot tech for operations (June 30th-July 1st)
FIBA renews 3v3 basketball broadcast deal with European Broadcasting Union (EBU) through 2028 (June 27th)
Aims to boost visibility of 3v3 as it builds toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Four-year extension guarantees free-to-air coverage of major 3x3 events across Europe; spans World Cups, Europe Cups, U23 World Cups, and Olympic qualifiers [FIBA]
Job Board & Opportunities: Week of July 4th
Here are some cool roles we found and personally curated this week - enjoy!