Kushner's Affinity Partners raised billions from Gulf sovereign funds and is in talks to raise more while he negotiates for Trump in the Middle East
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund committed $2 billion to Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate added $1.5 billion in 2024, and by March 2026 the firm had begun discussions with the Saudi fund on a second fund while Kushner negotiated for Trump in the Middle East.
What happened
Affinity Partners is the private equity firm Jared Kushner launched in 2021 after leaving the White House at the end of Trump's first term. Its SEC Form ADV, filed under the name A Fin Management LLC, lists Kushner as founder and chief executive officer, and Reuters reported the filing names him as the company's sole owner. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund committed $2 billion to Affinity from June 2021 and pays a 1.25 percent annual management fee on it, according to Ron Wyden's September 24, 2024 letter to the firm; Reuters reported the $2 billion investment citing congressional investigators, and Axios reported the fund is Affinity's anchor limited partner. Wyden's 2024 letter said five other foreign investors, including sovereign wealth funds from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou, had committed the remaining $1 billion of approximately $3 billion, and that Affinity had pocketed $157 million in fees from foreign clients, including $87 million from the Saudi government. In 2024 Affinity secured $1.5 billion of extra capital from two existing investors, Abu Dhabi-based Lunate and the Qatar Investment Authority, Kushner told an investment podcast in December; he said the raise had closed before Trump was re-elected, Reuters reported on March 28, 2025. The firm's assets under management rose from $3 billion to $4.8 billion by the end of 2024, according to the SEC filings, and the annual amendment filed March 22, 2026 reports $6,160,297,411 in regulatory assets under management, $6,097,061,904 of it for clients who are not U.S. persons; Bloomberg reported the rise to $6.2 billion at the end of 2025 reflected gains on investments. Since the summer of 2025 Kushner has worked for Trump as a volunteer on Israel and Gaza, on Russia and Ukraine and on Iran, Axios reported on March 16, 2026, and Affinity has begun discussions with the Saudi fund about a second fund, as first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by Axios. On March 19, 2026, Ron Wyden and Robert Garcia, the ranking members of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to the White House and to Affinity Partners. They wrote that Kushner appeared to be seeking to raise at least $5 billion in additional foreign capital while representing the U.S. government in negotiations in the Middle East, that Affinity is backed by billions of dollars tied to the Saudi, Emirati and Qatari governments, and that by their own estimate Affinity collected more than $60 million in fees from foreign investors in 2025, including $39 million from the Saudi government; they demanded answers by April 2, 2026. Those characterisations and the 2025 fee estimate are the two ranking members' own and rest on no filing they cite. Kushner is said to brush aside the idea of a conflict between his firm and his diplomatic work, Axios reported; the release and the letters carry no response from Affinity or the White House. The letters, the SEC filing and the reporting cited here do not show that the Gulf sovereign funds' money bought any act of U.S. policy; the two ranking members ask what separates the two roles. The row is dated to the letters, March 19, 2026; the money arrived earlier, the $2 billion from June 2021 and the $1.5 billion in 2024. The amount is the $2 billion Saudi commitment, the one inflow the committees, Reuters and Wyden's 2024 letter each state; the firm's assets under management are a stock that includes investment gains and are not the amount. The money is organisational: it went to Affinity Partners, a firm Kushner owns, not to Kushner as personal income.
Why it matters
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund put $2 billion into the president's son-in-law's firm, and the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate added $1.5 billion; Kushner owns the firm, and Wyden's 2024 letter put its fees from foreign clients at $157 million, $87 million of it from the Saudi government. Kushner now negotiates for Trump in the Middle East while the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates remain his firm's investors, and the firm is in discussions with the Saudi fund about a second fund. The letters, the SEC filing and the reporting cited here do not show that the money bought any act of U.S. policy; the two ranking members have asked the White House and Affinity what separates the two roles.
Sources
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, oversightdemocrats.house.gov, oversightdemocrats.house.gov, reuters.com, reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov, axios.com, bloomberg.com, finance.senate.gov