Multiple sources say talks have begun after tensions first apparent in 2024 led both sides to explore buying each other out, though it has since emerged that Clearlake — the club's majority owner with a 61.5% stake, led by co-founders Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano — could instead be the one to buy out its minority partners.
Boehly and Walter each own 12.8% and are reported to value the club at £5 billion, meaning a sale would net each of them around £640 million. Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, closely aligned with the pair, owns a further 12.8%, though his own position remains unclear at this stage.
Walter, co-owner and chief executive of global finance firm Guggenheim Partners, where Boehly also began his financial career, last week sold the Los Angeles Lakers for a record $12.5 billion, a year after buying a majority stake in the NBA franchise. Separately, US federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating companies within Walter's wider business empire.
Boehly currently serves as Chelsea chairman but is due to be replaced at the end of the season by a Clearlake-appointed representative, under an arrangement agreed when the consortium bought the club from Roman Abramovich for £2.3 billion in 2022.
A sale of his stake would represent a further reduction in Boehly's influence, having initially been the public face of the takeover before serving as interim sporting director during the new ownership's first transfer window.
Eghbali has become the most influential figure at the club since 2023 and has been heavily involved in transfer dealings, while several senior executives have left within the first two years of the ownership.
Some sources at Chelsea and within the ownership group have played down the extent of the rift, pointing to photographs of Boehly and Eghbali together at key matches, notably at Chelsea's FA Cup final defeat by Manchester City.
Chelsea's ongoing plans either to redevelop Stamford Bridge or move to a new stadium have been a persistent source of tension. Although both Boehly's camp and Clearlake are understood to favour moving away from the current site, there are differences over the design and scale of the project — something Boehly hinted at in an interview with Bloomberg last March.
"We have to think long term about what we're trying to accomplish," he said. "We have a big stadium development opportunity that we have to flesh out. That's going to be where we're either aligned or we ultimately decide to go different ways."
Chelsea finished tenth in the Premier League last season and appointed Xabi Alonso as their new manager over the summer.