What Happened to Ryan Smith?

Ryan Smith's journey began in 2002 when he co-founded Qualtrics with his father, Scott, and brother, Jared, in his parents' basement. The company, focused on experience management software, grew significantly without external funding for its first decade, eventually raising $400 million from venture capitalists like Accel, Sequoia, and Insight Venture Partners. A major turning point occurred in January 2019 when SAP acquired Qualtrics for $8 billion, just days before its planned IPO, marking one of the largest private enterprise software acquisitions at the time. Smith remained CEO, and under his leadership, SAP spun out Qualtrics as a standalone public company in 2021, listing on Nasdaq under the ticker 'XM'. The company was subsequently taken private again in July 2023 in a buyout led by private equity giant Silver Lake.

Beyond his tech success, Smith has become a significant figure in professional sports. In December 2020, he led a group to acquire the NBA's Utah Jazz for $1.66 billion, a deal that also included the Delta Center and the NBA G League's Salt Lake City Stars. This acquisition was driven by his lifelong passion for the team and a desire to keep the Jazz in Utah. He then established Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) as a holding company for his sports and entertainment assets. In January 2022, Smith, alongside investor David Blitzer, purchased Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake and its affiliates, including the re-establishment of the NWSL's Utah Royals in 2023. However, in April 2025, he sold his interest in Real Salt Lake, the Royals, and America First Field to Miller Sports + Entertainment.

Smith's sports portfolio continued to expand rapidly. In April 2024, SEG successfully brought an NHL franchise to Utah by purchasing the Arizona Coyotes' hockey assets for $1.2 billion. The team was initially known as Utah Hockey Club for its inaugural 2024-25 season and was rebranded as the Utah Mammoth in Spring 2025. As of May 2026, Smith is the primary governor of both the Utah Jazz and the Utah Mammoth. His involvement extends to new ventures, as he co-founded Halo Experience Company (HXCO) in 2025 with Ryan Sweeney, launching a $1 billion investment fund in April 2025 to target growth-stage tech companies in the sports and entertainment 'experience economy'.

Philanthropically, Smith co-founded '5 For The Fight' in 2016, a campaign dedicated to eradicating cancer. The initiative achieved its goal of raising $50 million for cancer research by September 2023, and its patch was notably worn on Utah Jazz jerseys from 2017 to 2023, marking the first philanthropic patch in North American professional sports history. In February 2026, Smith made headlines for publicly disputing a $500,000 NBA fine levied against the Jazz for alleged 'conduct detrimental to the league,' engaging in a public exchange with an ESPN reporter on social media. Most recently, in May 2026, reports emerged about Smith's long-standing investment in the career of highly-touted NBA prospect AJ Dybantsa, including bringing him to Utah for prep school and bankrolling his NIL deal with BYU. His estimated net worth is approximately $2.2 billion as of February 2026.