The greatest acquisition of Ed Kushner’s private capital so far is an Israeli company that tried to buy more than a decade ago.
In 2014, Kushner was 33 years old and was the executive director of Kushner Companies, the New York real estate co -founded by his father and grandfather. In search of new investments, he was set at the Israeli firm of Insurance and Financial Services Phoenix. Kushner signed an tentative agreement to buy a 47% participation in the company, possible in part thanks to a seller’s loan. Everything seemed promising for a while. But regulatory obstacles soon were too difficult and the offer failed.
Ten years later, he had a second chance. Through Affinity Partners, the private capital firm that founded at the beginning of 2021, has invested approximately 250 million dollars in the purchase of a participation of almost 10 % in Phoenix since July 2024. One of the largest bets of Affinity to date, is also the “best investment” of the firm, presumes Kushner, now 44 years old, who claims to have obtained a profitability of more than nine times.
Thanks in part to bets like this, as well as your ability to raise funds from high profile inverters from the Middle East, Kushner is now a billionaire. Forbes It estimates its fortune in just over one billion dollars, compared to at least 900 million dollars a year ago. It joins the list of billionaires with his brother Josh (Heritage: 5.2 billion dollars) and his father -in -law, President Donald Trump (7.3 billion dollars). But instead of following Josh, whose venture capital firm focuses mainly on technological investments, OA Trump, who currently obtains most of his money from cryptocurrency bets, Kushner has followed his own path.
Kushner left the family real estate business in 2017 to join the White House as a main advisor during Trump’s first mandate. He took this position to the Middle East, where he finally helped negotiate Abraham’s agreements, a set of normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Baréin and other countries. In January 2021, the same month that Trump left the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners in Sunny Isles Beach, a suburb of Miami. In total, he has raised 4.6 billion dollars, including 1.5 billion last year of two of its first sponsors: the sovereign catari and lunate fund, based in Abu Dabi (part of the Royal Group of Sheikh Tahnoon, of Emirati royalty).
Kushner has 100% of Affinity, which Forbes He estimates that he is currently worth 215 million dollars, compared to the October 170 million. That makes it the second largest asset in Kushner after his 20% participation in Kushner Companies of his family, with a value of $ 560 million (compared to the previous $ 580 million). Another good bet: buying a house on Indian Creek Island in Florida, the “Bunker of the billionaires” enclave where both Jeff Bezos and the EMIR of Qatar also have properties, for 32 million in 2020. That house, which he shares with his wife Ivanka Trump, now is worth at least 105 million before counting his mortgage, an increase of almost the triple in value. The rest of Kushner’s wealth lies in cash, works of art and other personal investments (although unlike his brothers -in -law and the president, he does not have cryptocurrencies).
It is a very wide portfolio, but is currently fully focused on Affinity. Private capital is a new field for Kushner, whose previous experience focused mainly on the real estate sector. Perhaps rightly, it began slowly, investing less than 500 million dollars until 2023. But its investment is beginning to increase: Affinity had publicly invested more than 2000 million dollars until April and it is expected to invest at least 1000 million dollars only this year. The firm manages 48 billion dollars in assets, according to its last financial declaration, presented in March. It currently has about 25 investments, including 22 companies in its portfolio, in at least eight countries, in sectors ranging from fitness technology to car leasing.
“At first, we were looking to position ourselves in the market,” Kushner tells Forbes . “But now we have consolidated as a reference partner.”
The one billion jared
Unlike their in -laws, which have been collecting cryptocurrencies, Kushner has been building its private capital portfolio since the end of Trump’s first mandate.
Among its most recent investments: Affinity acquired an 8% participation in the British Digital Oaknorth Bank for an unrelated amount in August. The firm is also joining the rise of artificial intelligence. Recently he supported the Infrastructure firm of the universal AI, which raised 10 million dollars from a list of high profile investors, including former Google executive director Eric Schmidt, and the prolific capitalist of Israeli Risk Elad Gil. And on Wednesday, Kushner and Gil launched Brain Co., a new Startup from San Francisco, which has already raised 30 million dollars from Affinity, Gil and others, including Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and Patrick Collison de stripe.
Most Affinity investors arrived through contacts that Kushner forged while serving in the White House. (He has officially retired from the policy for Trump’s second mandate, but continues to advise on some matters at a distance, and still makes some public appearances with the president, as in the United States Tennis Open at the beginning of September). Affinity sponsors pay around 60 million dollars a year in fees.
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How the bold bets of Jared Kushner in the Middle East made him a billionaire
The success of the firm’s portfolio will be demonstrated largely in the long term: while the standard life cycle of a private capital fund is about 10 years, the first Affinity fund will extend to 13. Even so, there are some clear initial successes. One of them is Qxo, a construction company distribution company founded by Brad Jacobs, who has already created eight companies valued at one billion dollars. Affinity invested 350 million dollars in the company between July 2024 and April of this year and has obtained a 98% gain since its first investment.
Revolution, a digital bank based in London co -founded by Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, also has potential. Affinity invested in August 2024 with an assessment of 45,000 million dollars. According to reports, Revolution has launched a secondary sale of shares that the company values at 75,000 million dollars, which would represent a 67 % profitability in just over a year. And one of the first companies backed by Kushner, the Dubai Dubizzle Group headquarters, is considering quoting in the stock market.
Then there is Phoenix, one of the first Israeli insurers to expand to private credit and asset management. Kushner began to consider returning to the load against Phoenix in 2022, before Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 shocked the region. At that time, I believed that the stock market had been undervalued the company because it quoted as a simple insurance (these usually quote according to their accounting value) instead of the business generating business in which they had become (these usually quote according to their earnings).
Affinity initially invested in Phoenix in July 2024. “At that time, most were afraid to invest in Israel due to the uncertainty of war,” says Kushner. “We saw Phoenix as an misunderstood fundamental asset and said: ‘Let’s bet strong on Israel’.”
Phoenix manages about 170,000 million dollars in assets; Kushner calls him “Israel’s JPMorgan.” Since then, the market has adopted its perspective. The price of Phoenix shares has almost tripled, but Kushner multiplied its yields through leverage, which means that its capital is now worth its initial investment.
Kushner does not occupy an official position in Phoenix, but maintains what he calls “a very active dialogue with the company.” It meets with them every few weeks, more frequently than the other sponsors of Phoenix, to talk about company news, market trends and ideas to connect with investors and asset managers.
“It is a minority, but an important minority,” jokes executive director Eyal Ben Simon. The deputy executive director, David Alexander, adds: “We have extensive experience with global first -class private capital funds. He has formed a great team and excellent capabilities, so he feels how to interact with a leading private capital fund, with a deep vision and good questions.”
Not all Kushner bets have been a success. Mosaic, a California -based credit entity for residential solar projects that Affinity supported in 2022, declared bankruptcy in June. And its 500 million dollars luxury development project in the former headquarters of the Yugoslav Army in Belgrade, the Serbian capital – which will house a Hotel of the Trump brand and three luxury towers, developed in collaboration with the billionaire real estate promoter Mohamed Alabbar, based in Dubai – suffered a setback in May. (The site was bombarded by NATO in 1999 and its ruins were declared cultural heritage; the Local Prosecutor’s Office announced that a cultural official falsified a key document that allowed the government to renounce the condition of cultural heritage of the site).
“We could have a beautiful hotel that generates jobs and pays taxes, instead of a bombarded building that is a fright,” says Kushner, who is confident that the project will continue. “We still have a beautiful design and continue planning and working to make it come true.”
Looking ahead, Affinity is still looking for agreements. For example, Kushner continues to plan to invest in a Mexican unleashed infrastructure company, a measure that has been delayed due to Trump’s tariffs. He presses so that the company buys more American teams before committing.
After almost five years at the head of Affinity, Kushner is still a small fish in the world of private capital. Despite having reaped some successes, it is still early to determine the success of the firm’s portfolio in a sector that measures profitability over a decade. However, this has not deteriorate wealthy investors from the Middle East to invest more in their funds. If this continues like this, your investment history may not influence your results.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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