Jared Kushner relocated to Miami from Washington in 2021. He founded Affinity Partners, a private equity firm, in a city that has grown to be a popular destination for investors seeking milder temperatures and fewer inquiries. The timing was intentional. The time at the White House was over. On the other hand, the rolodex was completely undamaged.
One of the most remarkable wealth accumulations in recent American financial history occurred over the course of the next four years. This isn’t because private equity firms don’t produce significant returns; rather, it’s because of how fast this firm went from having zero assets under management to several billion, as well as the source of the foundational capital.
A $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth institution under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authority, served as the foundation for Affinity Partners. Secured in 2021 before Affinity had a significant track record, that one allocation provided the company with the capital base and confidence to draw in more investments. Additional investments totaling about $1.5 billion came from organizations with ties to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, such as the Qatar Investment Authority and a company named Lunate. The overall assets under management increased to about $6.2 billion by the end of 2025.
The annual proportion of assets that private equity companies get, independent of investment performance, is known as management fee revenue, and it is directly correlated with this rise in AUM. The yearly revenue generated before a single contract closes or a single return is realized is already significant at the standard management fee structure for a company of this size and stage. The economics of managing a well-capitalized private equity firm soon become evident when performance fees are included when investments are successful.
An Israeli financial services company called Phoenix was one of Affinity’s most talked-about investments. According to reports, Kushner’s company invested about $250 million and experienced returns of about nine times that amount. If this figure is correct, it would be among the best single-investment results in the asset class in recent years. That one position alone had a significant impact on the firm’s entire portfolio value, even though not all investments had performed at that level.
Kushner had already turned one previous wager into liquidity prior to the introduction of Affinity. He made an estimated $25 million to $50 million from his investment in the real estate technology business Cadre. Even though it seems insignificant in comparison to what followed, that was significant capital at the time.
The 1,440% rise in net worth, from about $65 million in 2009 to over $1 billion today, is the kind of figure that puts an end to a discussion. The financial leverage of sovereign capital commitments that would not typically be accessible to a recently established private equity firm, an investment in Israeli financial markets that produced remarkable returns, and the structural economics of managing billions of assets for yearly fees are what it fairly represents.
Observers have questioned if the sovereign links were formed during his time in the White House or whether they would have emerged on their own, a question that Kushner and his firm have largely refused to address in-depth. Without his political background, Affinity’s track record might have drawn this kind of institutional capital on its own. However, it is also true that a clear evaluation of that instance is challenging due to the order of occurrences.