How hardcore is Durant's venture capital landscape from Coinbase to Hugging Face?

Author: Curry, Deep Tide TechFlow

The breaking of barriers between technology and sports often requires a single investment with astonishing returns.

Kevin Durant, a top NBA superstar known as "The Grim Reaper," who strikes fear into his opponents, may also be a death god in the investment world.

On August 27, renowned sports media personality Joe Pompliano disclosed a set of highly capital-intensive data on X: Kevin Durant and his business partner Rich Kleiman invested approximately $250,000 in the open-source AI platform Hugging Face. With industry media The Information revealing that NVIDIA plans to acquire the company for $12.9 billion, the paper return on this early investment is expected to exceed $60 million.

This figure even surpasses Durant's annual salary of about $43.9 million for the 2026-27 season with the Houston Rockets. The tweet quickly sparked heated discussions, and a "hundred-fold report card" summarizing Durant's venture capital achievements went viral in the crypto and venture capital circles.

Betting on the "GitHub of AI," Seed Round Investment Outperforming Salary

Hugging Face was founded in 2016 and successfully transformed from an early teenage chat application into today's open-source model community, being hailed as the "GitHub of AI" by the industry. According to disclosed investment clues, Durant's family office Thirty Five Ventures (referred to in the industry as 35V) participated in the company's $4 million seed round in 2018 (approximately $100,000) and the Series A financing in 2019 (approximately $150,000).

In August of this year, the company completed its Series D financing with a valuation of $4.5 billion. This week, rumors surfaced that NVIDIA made an acquisition offer as high as $12.9 billion. According to Pompliano's estimates, if the deal is finalized at that valuation, this $250,000 early stake could yield an astonishing return of over 240 times. This led him to remark in his tweet that this is "one of the best investments in sports history."

Unveiling Durant's Impressive Venture Capital Track Record

If Hugging Face's transformation from $250,000 to $60 million is a game-winning shot, then the complete venture capital report card unearthed by X account @burrytracker thoroughly reveals Durant's true cards as a "veteran venture capitalist" in Silicon Valley.

In this widely circulated investment portfolio review, comparing the valuations at the time of investment with current or peak valuations reveals astonishing multiples. Aside from the legendary Hugging Face (+23,900%), his bets on other tech and crypto giants remain impressively hardcore:

• Coinbase (+5,275%): 35V decisively entered Coinbase when its valuation was only $1.6 billion, accompanying the crypto exchange to its peak and witnessing its valuation soar to $86 billion on its first day of trading.
• Whoop (+7,980%): Quietly entered this sports wearable giant when its valuation was only $125 million; today, its valuation has surpassed $10.1 billion.
• Robinhood (+1,675%): Participated in the Series D round at a valuation of $5.6 billion; today, this "retail investor stronghold" in U.S. stocks and crypto is nearing a market cap of $100 billion (approximately $99.4 billion).
• Mercury (+5,100%): A banking service platform for startups, entered at a valuation of $100 million, now soaring to $5.2 billion.
• Overtime (+2,480%): A rising star in sports media, followed from an early valuation of $31 million to $800 million.

From crypto infrastructure, internet brokerage, to AI and digital health, Durant's capital reach has long transcended the traditional framework of star athletes "earning endorsement fees as mascots."

This portfolio, which includes tech newcomers like Rubrik and Postmates, would undoubtedly be considered a top-tier resume even in the professional Silicon Valley VC circle.

Countdown on the Court, Capital's Eternal Motion Machine

Although some professional investors in the comments pointed out that the table directly equates "the historical peak increase in company valuation" with "personal paper gains," overlooking the equity dilution from multiple rounds of financing and exit timing, it is undeniable that Durant's forward-looking vision has been fully validated by the market.

Unlike his contemporaries LeBron James, who leans towards brand and team equity, and Stephen Curry, who prefers media and consumer investments, Durant has clearly carved out a venture capital path more in line with Silicon Valley's geek culture.

Now, this veteran playing for the Houston Rockets has entered the twilight of his career. The physical capabilities and peak period of athletes inevitably enter a countdown, but his 35V capital empire's flywheel may just be beginning to spin at full speed. As early as 2010, the budding Durant posted on social media, stating that instead of wasting time in clubs (nightclubs), it is better to invest money and energy.

More than a decade later, the $60 million paper myth of Hugging Face may still need to wait for final settlement, but he has set an example for many athletes who retire and go bankrupt, squandering recklessly.

Basketball will eventually stop bouncing, but the compounding of capital will never retire.