Multiple Sports Owners Were Major Backers of Elizabeth Holmes

Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s new documentary You Can See Everything has been a lightning rod for discourse since it premiered in theaters on October 16. The film has been a box office and critical hit, grossing over $50 million in less than two weeks and earning early buzz as an Oscar contender.

Fielder and Oppenheim had intimate access to Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the failed biotechnology company Theranos, in the final 34 days before she entered federal prison after being sentenced to more than 11 years behind bars for defrauding investors.

The film has sparked renewed scrutiny on Theranos, which claimed to have invented a machine that could perform any blood test run by conventional labs on a patient using a single drop of blood. But after the Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou reported in 2015 that the company was struggling to perform the tests it promised, Holmes’s story rapidly unraveled. 

Investors who had bet big on Theranos—which raised more than $1.3 billion over the course of its history and peaked at a valuation of nearly $10 billion–-began withdrawing their money as the questions piled up. A whistleblower told Carreyrou that he was intimidated and threatened after raising concerns about the company doctoring research and manipulating quality-control measures. Holmes was convicted on four counts of fraud in 2022. 

Among the wealthy investors who bought into the dream Holmes was selling were multiple people with ties to professional sports ownership groups. The owners listed did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The Walton family, heirs of Walmart founder Sam Walton, was the single largest backer of Theranos. The family invested $150 million in the startup, according to documents that were unsealed as part of a lawsuit against Holmes and reported on by Carreyrou. 

In 2022, the Walton family purchased the Denver Broncos for a then-record $4.65 billion—after Theranos collapsed. Rob Walton, who was the chairman of Walmart from 1992 to 2015, was initially the controlling owner, but in 2023 transferred controlling ownership to his son-in-law and team CEO Greg Penner.

Longtime New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft also invested an estimated $1 million in Theranos. Kraft has owned the team since 1994 and overseen a dynasty which saw the Patriots claim six Super Bowl titles in an 18-year span. 

While Kraft and the Walton family have never publicly commented on the investments, their involvement with the startup was unearthed when Theranos committed a careless gaffe.

Amid widespread public scrutiny in late 2016, the company addressed an update email to 132 “Theranos investors” and accidentally listed every investor instead of blind-copying them; the message eventually leaked to Carreryou with the investors listed.

Representatives for The Kraft Group and Walton family were among those included on the email.

Meanwhile, the DeVos family, which owns the Orlando Magic, invested roughly $100 million in Theranos. That sum made the family the third-largest supporter of Holmes’s company. The disclosure of the size of the family’s investment in 2018 made headlines because family member Betsy DeVos was the Secretary of Education at the time.

The DeVos family has owned the Magic since 1991, when Amway co-founder Richard DeVos bought the team for $85 million. Richard’s sons Dick—who is married to Betsy—and Dan operate the team now.

A family spokesperson said in 2021 court testimony that the DeVos family relied on misleading revenue forecasts provided by Theranos in meetings. The DeVos family initially committed to investing $50 million, but upped its commitment to $100 million after a meeting with Holmes.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison was also an early investor in Theranos, though the amount he contributed has not been publicly disclosed. Ellison owns the Indian Wells tennis tournament and has been a booster of Michigan athletics, helping to secure the commitment of top-ranked quarterback recruit Bryce Underwood in 2024.

Ellison is also a prominent competitive sailor, founding Oracle Team USA in 2000 and competing for the team in the America’s Cup until 2017. In 2019, Ellison co-founded the international sailing series SailGP.

Holmes and her husband, Billy Evans, are launching a new blood testing startup, Haemanthus, which the couple is shown working on in “You Can See Everything.” Haemanthus describes itself as “a radically new approach to health testing,” and Evans told The New York Times the company is in stealth mode so that outside observers “aren’t going to find anything associated with the name Haemanthus.”

Holmes is scheduled to be released from her current prison location and transferred to a halfway house next August.