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Formula One Holdings
Philip Anschutz established his family office to manage the proceeds of an extraordinary career spanning oil, railroads, and telecommunications.
Formula One Holdings
Philip Anschutz established his family office to manage the proceeds of an extraordinary career spanning oil, railroads, and telecommunications. Anschutz built his fortune starting with his father's oil business, eventually founding Qwest Communications and amassing what is considered one of the largest private land portfolios in the United States. The family office's most prominent holding is Formula One Holdings, the entity that purchased the commercial rights to the Formula One Group from CVC Capital Partners in a deal valued at approximately $8 billion, closing in January 2017 (per the firm's official communications). Liberty Media later acquired Formula One Group from Anschutz and other shareholders, but Anschutz retained significant sports and entertainment assets through his private vehicle. The office deploys capital primarily into sports, live events, and entertainment infrastructure. The Formula One acquisition stands as the most iconic transaction in the portfolio. Beyond motorsport, the Anschutz family office controls major concert promoter AEG Presents and owns marquee real estate assets including the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Investments span live event venues, ticketing platforms, and sports team ownership stakes, including a minority share in the Los Angeles Lakers and the LA Galaxy. The geographic center of gravity is the United States, specifically Los Angeles, where many of the operating businesses and venue properties are concentrated. The family office operates from Denver's southern suburbs in Englewood, Colorado, where the broader Anschutz Corporation is headquartered. The enterprise maintains an intentionally low profile, with few public-facing principals beyond Philip Anschutz himself. Philanthropic efforts flow through the Anschutz Foundation, which has directed significant capital toward medical research and education in Colorado. The office's structural edge lies in its hybrid posture — it is a family office managing Anschutz's personal fortune while simultaneously operating as a holding company for major sports and entertainment properties through the Anschutz Entertainment Group. This creates a flywheel: venue ownership drives event booking which drives ticketing and sponsorship revenue, with the family office sitting at the center of these intertwined cash flows.
General information
Firm type
Single Family Office
Year founded
1987
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Englewood
Corporate office
Englewood, CO, United States
Principals
Philip Anschutz
Owner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Formula One Holdings?
Philip Anschutz is the sole decision-maker for major allocations. The office does not employ a publicly named CIO or investment committee. Key operating businesses like AEG Presents and venue management are led by professional executives, but capital allocation and major acquisitions are directed by Anschutz personally.
Does Formula One Holdings take outside capital or co-invest with external partners?
The office operates as a single family office and does not manage third-party capital. However, Anschutz has historically structured major deals alongside institutional co-investors. The Formula One Group acquired Liberty Media's stake in a multi-party consortium, demonstrating willingness to partner with aligned capital in large-scale transactions.
How is the Anschutz family office related to AEG?
The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is an operating subsidiary of the broader Anschutz portfolio. AEG owns and operates venues like the Crypto.com Arena and London's O2 Arena, runs major music festivals, and manages sports events. The family office sits above AEG in the ownership structure and benefits from the recurring venue and events revenue the operating company generates.
Where does the underlying wealth come from?
Philip Anschutz's wealth originated in oil drilling in the Western United States during the 1960s and 1970s. He later diversified into railroads through the acquisition of the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Rio Grande Railroad. His telecom investment, Qwest Communications, generated substantial liquidity at the height of the dot-com era, providing the capital base for the sports and entertainment acquisitions that followed.
What is the office's known posture on liquidity and holding periods?
The office takes a permanent capital approach to most assets. Venue properties and sports team stakes are held indefinitely. The Formula One transaction demonstrated a willingness to realize gains when institutional buyers entered the market, but the default strategy is long-duration ownership of irreplaceable sports and entertainment infrastructure.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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