David Rubenstein paid roughly $1.7 billion for the Baltimore Orioles in 2024, a purchase he frames as civic duty rather than portfolio strategy. The Carlyle Group cofounder told Business Insider this week that he had done little philanthropy in his hometown and saw the team as a way to change that. His new book, "Inside the Owner's Box: Conversations on Power and Leadership in Sports," collects interviews with peers including Robert Kraft and traces how the ultrawealthy shifted from avoiding the scrutiny of sports ownership to chasing it, convinced they can enjoy the status and still turn a profit.
The Amazon and Facebook exits
Rubenstein identifies two errors that dwarf the rest. Carlyle received an early stake in Amazon from Jeff Bezos, then sold after the dot-com crash erased the paper gains. The position would be worth many billions today. Separately, a future son-in-law who had been a classmate of Mark Zuckerberg asked Rubenstein to participate in a $30,000 seed round for Facebook. He declined. Eduardo Saverin took the allocation instead and now sits on a fortune of about $40 billion, placing him among the 60 richest people on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
AI valuations and the Buffett test
On artificial intelligence, Rubenstein says valuations are "really, really high" and in some cases detached from earnings. He cites Nvidia's recent results as proof the boom is not pure fantasy, but applies the dot-com lesson: most AI ventures will not survive. The ones gaining traction now will likely keep doing so for a while. He also flags aggressive accounting, circular financing, hidden debt and overinvestment as risks. Quoting Warren Buffett, he notes that a receding tide reveals who has been swimming without a bathing suit.
The crash playbook
History, in Rubenstein's view, argues against panic. Markets have rebounded after every prior bubble. The costliest mistake investors make when a bubble bursts is liquidating everything and stepping aside. He suggests the opposite: hold, and perhaps add, when the selling climaxes.