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Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire philanthropist and founder of Emerson Collective, has invested $250 million in Skydance, the newly merged entertainment company led by David Ellison. The investment gives her a significant equity stake in one of Hollywood’s most prominent new media enterprises.
Powell Jobs Joins the Skydance Board
Powell Jobs joined the Skydance board on October 5, alongside former Activision chief Bobby Kotick. The company publicly announced both appointments the following day.
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As part of her board appointment, Powell Jobs acquired 20.83 million shares of Skydance Corp. at $12 per share, bringing her total investment to $250 million. She holds those shares indirectly through a trust, as disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition to her share purchase, Skydance granted her 33,118 restricted stock units as part of her role as a board member. Those units are scheduled to vest at the company’s 2027 annual stockholders meeting.
Skydance said it believes Powell Jobs is qualified to serve on the board because of her extensive experience investing in innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises, as well as her focus on high-quality journalism.
A Broad Investment Portfolio
Powell Jobs founded Emerson Collective in 2011. The organization pairs philanthropy with venture capital investing to support entrepreneurs addressing complex global challenges.
Through Emerson Collective, she serves as the lead investor in Anonymous Content, an independent production and management company. She also backs Concordia Studio, a talent-first film and television studio founded by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim.
Furthermore, Powell Jobs became the majority investor and board chair of The Atlantic under a deal reached in 2017. Emerson Collective has also invested in artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Anthropic.
Powell Jobs was married to the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Forbes currently estimates her net worth at $15.8 billion.
Skydance’s Ownership and Scale
Skydance brings together two major Hollywood studios, along with streaming platforms HBO Max and Paramount+. The combined company also controls television networks including CBS, CNN, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, TBS and TNT.
The Ellison family holds the largest equity stake in Skydance. Tech mogul Larry Ellison provided multibillion-dollar backing for his son David’s leadership of the company.
Meanwhile, RedBird Capital Partners, led by managing partner Gerry Cardinale, invested $4 billion into Skydance. Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi also participated as equity investors in the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
Together, the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners are the sole holders of Paramount Class A common stock. That includes 100% of the combined company’s voting shares.
Powell Jobs’s Broader Civic Commitments
Beyond her media and technology investments, Powell Jobs co-founded the Waverley Street Foundation, College Track and the XQ Institute. Those organizations focus on community-led climate solutions and improving educational outcomes.
She also serves on the boards of Chicago CRED and the Ford Foundation. In addition, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Ernest C. Arbuckle Award for excellence in management leadership.
Her official biography states that she believes investing in education, economic mobility, immigration and energy can expand opportunity for the next generation. She also holds that high-quality independent journalism is essential to a functioning democracy.
