Jared Kushner

Affinity Partners is built around the proposition that networks, governance judgment, and hands-on problem-solving can uncover returns that capital alone cannot. Kushner says the firm puts “skin in the game,” then helps scope solutions and find customers and opportunities. His government-to-investing framework says government can set policy, while the private sector must bring technical expertise, project-management capability, capital, and local-navigation skill; having only three of those four is a “recipe for disaster.” The largest inefficiency may be sovereign: companies trade constantly, while roughly “200-plus countries” can remain reputationally mispriced.

Kushner’s macro map favors tailwinds in the Gulf and Latin America, with Albania as his clearest contrarian specimen. He calls Singapore “blue chip,” sees Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE pairing capital with ambitious leadership, and argues Mexico should benefit from US supply-chain diversification if bilateral disputes are resolved. His underwriting rule is to find an amazing wave and also be an amazing surfer.

BrainCo is the founders’ attempt to productize AI deployment for the world’s largest institutions rather than sell one-off implementation work. Started in January 2024 by Kushner, Elad Gil, Eric Wu, and Luis, it combines common infrastructure with applications that can be reused across customers and verticals. The founding insight: Silicon Valley is exceptional at solving problems but “not always the best at identifying which problems to solve.”

Construction permitting is BrainCo’s strongest proof point: a 40-plus-step process taking three or four months should, Kushner says, take three minutes with AI. The initial ambition was over 90% efficiency on one step; Kushner says he thinks the system is now at 35 steps with over 90% accuracy on all 35, while the implementation exposed over 10 human-designed steps that could simply be removed. The claimed payoff spans lower consultant costs, faster construction and tax receipts, and less opaque discretion that can enable corruption.

The binding constraint on enterprise AI is organizational adoption as much as model capability. BrainCo wants complex problems, usable data, and leadership able to overcome internal resistance; as Kushner puts it, “Change is like heaven. Everyone wants to go there, but nobody wants to die.” The company has grown beyond 40 people, but Kushner says time, talent, project selection, and maintaining quality—not customer demand—limit growth.

US AI competitiveness depends, in Kushner’s account, on energy permitting and innovation, with Gulf partnerships adding capital and deployment environments. He cites roughly 1,300 gigawatts of existing US energy capacity against about 2,000 gigawatts awaiting FERC permits, arguing that private capital is available if government clears bottlenecks and avoids premature AI regulation. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar offer not just capital but companies, governments, and data—“tremendous sandbox” capacity for building tools with US AI firms.

Kushner’s diplomatic lesson is that shared forward interests can beat inherited sequencing assumptions. His team challenged the view that Arab-Israeli progress required first solving the Palestinian issue, eventually reaching UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco agreements after succeeding on “plan C” only by going “through the alphabet like three times.” He now frames the return of hostages and a humanitarian resolution in Gaza as critical steps toward Saudi-Israeli normalization and says broader progress could follow soon afterward.

The episode’s sharpest realized-investment claim is Affinity’s Phoenix Holdings position. Kushner says the Israeli financial institution manages about $160 billion; Affinity became its largest shareholder through two 4.9% purchases, entering around $37 per share before the northern war and watching the stock approach $120. He says the staged purchases enabled better leverage and claims “almost a nine times” return in just over a year—and says Gulf investors are consequently examining Israel while Phoenix explores Saudi and UAE opportunities.

🔗 Original source & video: Jared Kushner: BrainCo, Affinity Partners, and the Geopolitics of AI