New Khoslas owners on Seahawks football ops, Lumen Field, AI--white throwbacks

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Vinod Khosla is a Silicon Valley company microsystems founder. He’s the 71-year-old patriarch and frontman of the Seahawks’ new ownership group.

He’s also a proud dad.

Visit freshyourfeel.org for more information.

Minutes after he, his wife Neeru and son Neal finished their introductory press conference Wednesday morning in a luxury-seating lounge of their new team’s Lumen Field, The News Tribune asked Vinod Khosla how involved his son is going to be in the Super Bowl champions’ day-to-day operations as Seahawks vice chair.

“Neal’s going to be in the details,” his father said of his 33-year-old son, a founder of a medical artificial-intelligence company in the Bay Area.

Then Dad boasted about Neal developing the first quantifiable model valuating each of the 250-plus picks in each year’s seven-round NFL draft based on mathematics. This was during Neal’s time as an intern for the San Francisco 49ers.

There had been draft-pick value charts around the league for decades — the “Jimmy Johnson chart” from the 1990s Dallas Cowboys is a famous one. His father said Wednesday Neal Khosla’s model was the first of its kind.

A couple minutes later and a few feet away, Neal Khosla somewhat sheepishly confirmed that was true.

So what was the model? How did he develop it and what did he base it upon?

“Well, we...”

Then Neal Khosla stopped. He decided he didn’t want to divulge details. Suddenly, they were now Seahawks proprietary information.

“We may use it,” he said, laughing, about six hours before his Seahawks hosted the New England Patriots in the kickoff game of the NFL season at Lumen Field.

That draft-value chart — and introducing their expertise in AI to the training, coaching and scouting that coaches are eager to add — may be the only two ways the Khoslas are going to impact Seahawks football operations.

At least initially.

“We’re not coming in here shaking our fists,” Neal Khosla said.

That was the theme of their introduction to the Pacific Northwest and Seahawks fans everywhere Wednesday, two weeks after NFL owners approved the franchise’s sale from the Estate of Paul G. Allen to the Khoslas for a league-record $9.61 billion.

The new owners’ approach to football operations of 17th-year general manager John Schneider, third-year head coach Mike Macdonald and Seattle’s champions?

Status quo.

“How lucky is it, how often do you get to buy a team that just won the Super Bowl?” Vinod Khosla said, reiterating what he said Aug. 26 in Atlanta when all 32 NFL team owners voted unanimously to approve this sale.

“So the best thing we can do is not mess with a lot.”

The 71-year-old new chair of the Seahawks, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, laughed.

“We will be working closely with management. I don’t think our approach is going to be telling them what to do. Our approach will be lots of discussions, then leave it to management to decide whether they agree with us or it.

“Very much the theme of, handing them the baton, and let them do their thing. And take responsibility for the results — which hopefully is another Super Bowl very soon. This year.

“Lots of dialogue. Lots of discussion. Then, let them make decisions.”

The Khoslas’ ownership group is led by Vinod as the chair, his 71-year-old high-school sweetheart from India Neeru as the team’s controlling owner plus president of the Seahawks Charitable Foundation, and son Neal as vice chair. They have 12 known minority investors — including the family behind Grupo Modelo and Corona beer in Mexico and two private-equity firms -— plus “a couple” more minority investors that want to remain anonymous, Vinod and Neal Khosla said.

It’s becoming apparent already, five days into their ownership, that Neal is going to be the point man for Schneider and Macdonald. Schneider has said there has been preliminary talk Neal Khosla may move from his Bay Area home to Seattle.

Vinod said he and Neeru, who’ve been together for 55 years — “so watch out, we are here to stay,” Neeru said — will remain living in their Palo Alto, California, home they’ve owned since 1986. It’s where they raised their three daughters, including a competitive equestrian who flew in from The Netherlands Wednesday for the game, and one son, their youngest child.

“Just like we’ve been together for 55 years, we tend to be stable,” Vinod Khosla said.

AI is coming to the Seahawks

Vinod Khosla was an early investor in artificial intelligence and remains a big believer in what he sees as transformational technology.

Neeru began a worldwide tutoring and reading program for kids through adults, the nonprofit ck12 Foundation, through AI.

“I am here to bring AI tutoring so that every kid in Seattle can get a tutor, personal tutor,” she said. “So it will be free.

“I’m serious about that, because we found it really helps because we built a vertical for students so that education can be individualized, whether they want to be a Seahawks player in the future or they want to be a musician, they want to be a physician, whatever that might be. I’d like to bring that to Seattle.”

Their son founded a medical-support company based on AI.

Macdonald and his coaching staff have been eager to get the Khoslas into Seahawks headquarters officially as owners to begin incorporating AI to the way the team coaches, trains, even travels and eats.

Schneider wants to tap into the Khoslas’ AI expertise and interests to improve the Seahawks’ scouting and player evaluation.

The TNT asked the Khoslas about how they intend to use AI in Seattle’s NFL football operations.

“We’ve talked a bunch about it. I won’t say there’s a specific plan on the field. That will be left to Mike Macdonald and John Schneider to do,” Vinod Kholsa said.

“AI has a lot of roles to play. ...And no, I don’t think there’s any labor displacement gonna happen with robots.

“I suspect AI will be an important part of entertainment, enhancing the experience, but no specific plans today.”

Neal Khosla sees AI as another area Schneider and Macdonald can do what they profess to do daily.

“I think one of the great things about John and Mike is they’re always ‘chasing edges,’” the vice chair said, using one of Macdonald’s credos. “They’re always looking for what they can do to gain advantages. And if we can be helpful, we’d love to bring those perspectives.”

How much is AI in the Khoslas daily life?

Vinod Khosla used ChatGPT to design special, black sneakers he wore under custom jacket designed for the Seahawks and Wednesday’s opener. ChatGPT found him a shoe maker in Italy who could design, make and send him the shoes within four days.

He was wearing them Wednesday at Lumen Field.

At one point, Vinod Khosla said in describing himself, his wife and his son: “We are very approachable. We don’t like anything fancy.”

Neal Khosla, sitting to his father’s right, scoffed.

“He got his jacket shipped from Italy!” Neal said, incredulously. “What are we talking about?”

Lumen Field

Neal Khosla did have one bit of new news Wednesday: The vice chair said the Seahawks will bring back their popular, white, throwback jerseys from 1970s and ‘80s road games during the 2027 NFL seasons.

One of the first questions of the press conference sought the Khoslas’ opinion of Lumen Field and the publicly-created stadium district around it on the south end of downtown Seattle. The Seahawks have a lease that runs through 2031 at stadium that opened in 2002, that then-owner Paul Allen helped get built upon him buying the team from Ken Behring in 1997. The team holds a series of 10-year options to keep playing in Lumen Field beyond 2031.

“First, I would say, we’re owners for five days. A little early to formulate specific plans,” Vinod Khosla said. “The broad thing I can say is I don’t expect too many changes.

“So, our philosophy will be similar to what the Allens did and rely a lot on management to recommend what they want to do.”

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