Todd Boehly’s Eldridge is rolling out AI across portfolio companies from Chelsea Football Club to film studio A24, as investment firms race to protect portfolios from disruption. Chelsea uses AI to analyse football injuries, while A24 has a $75mn research partnership with Google DeepMind. “It’s going to take a lot of legwork but we’re giving colleagues tools to rethink workflows,” said co-founder Tony Minella, driving the AI strategy. Minella and Boehly founded Eldridge in 2015. The group has investments in more than 100 companies and $75bn in assets.

Eldridge has acquired a 50% stake in European AI company Sudolabs, giving access to about 70 specialists including 40 engineers. The deal will streamline due diligence and reduce manual work. “Single-sourced is never a good place,” said Boehly, noting reliance on one US AI provider is risky. Rival groups like Blackstone and Apollo have deals with Anthropic, while Eldridge also backs Core Weave. The strategy aims to let portfolio companies “play offence” using AI.