Sep 11, 2025 · 58m · no-priors
No Priors Ep. 131 | With Jared Kushner
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of No Priors, Jared Kushner joins Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to discuss his cross-border investment strategy at Affinity Partners, co-founding enterprise AI platform BrainCo, the geopolitical impact of the Abraham Accords, and the critical need for private-sector talent in public governance.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 18.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 4.0 Guest teaching 3.4 Guest disagreement 1.4 The hosts pushing back 1.3
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 36:05 Jared's critique of credentialed foreign policy experts
Jared forcefully rejects conventional diplomatic orthodoxy, arguing that establishment experts who failed for decades had no standing to criticize his unconventional approach.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 17:13 Elad reframing Sarah's implementation characterizationElad directly interjects to correct Sarah's characterization of BrainCo as an implementation vendor, clarifying that it is built on a shared platform infrastructure.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 34:00 Jared explaining the mechanics of first-principles diplomacyJared educates the hosts on how identifying non-negotiable end states and ignoring legacy negotiation playbooks unlocked the breakthrough Abraham Accords.
The host holds their own ▶ 3:09 Elad contextualizing cross-border investing with the Yuri Milner case studyElad displays deep venture knowledge by connecting Jared's Affinity thesis to Yuri Milner's historic DST Global investment in Facebook.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founding Affinity Partners and Global Generalist Investing | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The conversation opens warmly with Jared outlining Affinity's investment philosophy. Elad demonstrates subject expertise by drawing a direct comparison to Yuri Milner's cross-border investment strategy with early Facebook. | |
| Country Underpricing, Macro Trends, and Global Opportunities | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Jared explains how he analyzes country-level governance and macro underpricing using his Albania thesis and perspectives on Singapore and the Gulf. Hosts ask open-ended prompts to explore his geopolitical investing criteria. | |
| Launching BrainCo and Solving Enterprise AI Implementation | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Because Elad is a co-founder of BrainCo alongside Jared, the discussion functions as a collaborative business showcase where Elad actively clarifies BrainCo's platform architecture versus pure services. | |
| AI Industrial Policy, Energy Constraints, and Middle East Tech | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Jared highlights energy permitting constraints and government bottlenecks for AI infrastructure while discussing Middle Eastern AI investments. Hosts prompt him on energy transition sources. | |
| Middle East Diplomacy and the Abraham Accords | 4 | 6 | 3 | 2 | Jared details the foreign policy establishment's failures in the Middle East and how the Trump administration brokered the Abraham Accords by rejecting conventional assumptions. Elad probes on the October 7th motivations and proxy dynamics. | |
| Fostering Arab-Israeli Cross-Border Economic Partnerships | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Sarah prompts Jared on bridging Arab-Israeli business ties through private equity. Jared details their Phoenix Holdings investment as proof of cross-border financial alignment. | |
| Navigating Public Life and Partnership with Ivanka Kushner | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Sarah asks a personal question about partnership, marriage, and career. Jared discusses his partnership with Ivanka Kushner during the pressures of public office and post-government investing. | |
| Bringing Private Sector Tech Talent to Government Service | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Elad asks what tech professionals should expect when entering government. Elad defends Jared against media vilification, and Jared encourages private sector talent to treat government service like high-impact tours of duty. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Kushner: Affinity bought Brazil Burger King, Starbucks, and Subway assets with Mubadala
“Another one of those businesses we did was we bought into the food sector in, in Brazil. We bought a lot of the Burger Kings there, and then we just bought the Starbucks and the subway out of bankruptcy. We did that in partnership with Mubatala, which has been…”
Kushner: Public-private partnerships need expertise, project management, capital, and local navigation.
“Government at their best can set the right policy. And if you have great leaders who can do that, you still need the private sector to come and be your partner in order to bring expertise, technical expertise. You need them to bring project management capabili…”
Kushner: Silicon Valley solves problems well but struggles to pick them
“What we saw in Silicon Valley is that they're amazing at solving problems. They're not always the best at identifying which problems to solve.”
Gil: Biggest enterprise AI blocker is people and processes, not tech
“The biggest obstacle to AI implementation in enterprises tends to be people, processes, You know, organizational redesign. It has less to do with the technology sometimes than rejiggering things so the technology can actually be placed into the workflow or pla…”
Kushner: Jared Kushner pushed TSMC to build Arizona semiconductor fabs under Trump.
“When I was in the White House the first time under President Trump this was part of the efforts that, that he was saying he wanted to focus on, and at his direction, actually, I reached out to TSMC and was in touch with them then to
Push them to try and start…”
Kushner: 2,000 GW of US Energy Was Awaiting FERC Permits
“In the U.S., we have about one point 1300 gigawatts of energy.
but what they showed me is that there's about 2000 gigawatts of energy that was waiting for permits from the FERC”
Kushner: European Regulation Has Stifled AI Innovation
“You see the regulation they put on in Europe, and that's why there's really not a whole lot happening in Europe on the AI front right now”
Kushner: Middle East Will Co-Create Global AI Tools, Not Just Fund Them
“I actually think they're gonna become a very significant, not just investor, but also partner in creating AI tools and capabilities that can then go from there to the rest of the world.”
Kushner: An Israel-Saudi Deal Could Have Finished in 3 to 6 Months in 2021
“When President Trump left in 2021, ah, a deal with Saudi could have been done in three to six months, and that was basically what I passed over to the previous, ah, administration, ah, during the transition.”
Kushner: Trump and Witkoff Will Successfully Resolve the Gaza Conflict
“We need to get the Gaza issue resolved, and I know President Trump and Steve Wyckoff are working incredibly hard on that, and I do believe that they will be successful, and then big progress will be made soon thereafter.”
Kushner: Affinity saw nearly 9x return on Phoenix Holdings in a year
“We invested then at about 37 dollars a share. Today, the stock's almost 120 dollars a share. Because we needed a approval from the regulator, we bought 4.9 then, and then another 4.9 later. So we're able to use better leverage because the shares went up quite …”
Kushner: Israeli firm Phoenix is exploring investments in Saudi Arabia and UAE
“The next phase of that is, is Phoenix, which is a monster company, is now looking at investments in Saudi Arabia, investments in UAE, and basically thinking, how can they start deploying their huge amounts of capital into infrastructure projects In the region …”
Kushner: Ivanka Trump assists Affinity Partners with early-stage AI investments
“And so she's been making investments. She's been helping us a lot on, on some of our early stage investments that we make in AI and other areas, and she has a very good track record of doing those investments”
Kushner: Second Trump term lower-level hires exceed first-term top-level talent
“The people that they're hiring now at like third and fourth levels into the government are better than the people who are willing to come work for us at the top levels in the first administration.”
Kushner: Antonio Gracias saved over $10B annually on Social Security
“I know Antonio Gracios has done amazing work helping figure out how to get, you know, make sure we're only paying social security. I think he saved over ten billion a year so far from that.”
Kushner: Private-sector government tours of duty beat permanent political class
“I think that it's very, very important to have private sector people going into government, doing tours of duty versus just having a permanent political class which I think is is not necessarily great for the long-term interests of America.”