The Seattle Seahawks are being sold to the family of tech billionaire Vinod Khosla in a deal worth $9.612 billion — a record price for an NFL franchise and one of the largest sports team sales in history.

The Khosla family, including Vinod, his wife, Neeru, and their son Neal, reached a formal agreement to purchase the defending Super Bowl champions from the estate of the team’s late owner, Paul Allen, the Seahawks announced Saturday. Neeru Khosla is expected to serve as the team’s control owner, according to a memo the NFL sent to its clubs, while Neal, who serves as CEO of the healthcare company Curai, will also take on a leadership role with the franchise.

“We are honored to be entrusted as the next stewards of the Seattle Seahawks,” Vinod Khosla said in a statement released by the team. “We look forward to building on the winning legacy Paul Allen created and to earning the trust of the Seahawks organization and fans everywhere.”

The sale price obliterates the NFL’s previous record, the $6.05 billion Josh Harris‘s group paid for the Washington Commanders in 2023, and edges close to the roughly $10 billion Mark Walter paid to acquire full control of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers last year. According to Sportico, Khosla’s group beat out several other bidders, including one led by Indian billionaire Aditya Mittal.

Because Khosla already holds a 3.1% minority stake in the San Francisco 49ers, purchased in 2025, he’ll be required to divest that ownership interest as a condition of taking control of the Seahawks under NFL cross-ownership rules.

Khosla, who Forbes estimates is worth about $13.7 billion, co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 and later built a prominent venture capital career, first at Kleiner Perkins and then through his own firm, Khosla Ventures, founded in 2004, which has backed companies including Affirm, Opendoor and DoorDash.

The deal still requires approval from at least 24 of the NFL’s 32 team owners, a vote that could come as soon as August following a review by the league’s finance committee, according to ESPN.

The Seahawks have remained in the Allen family since Paul Allen purchased the team for $194 million in 1997. Following his death in 2018, his sister Jody Allen has controlled the franchise. The Seahawks are expected to stay in Seattle, where the team holds a lease at Lumen Field that runs through 2032, with three additional 10-year options.