No Priors Ep. 131 | With Jared Kushner

From negotiating with world leaders to partnering with top entrepreneurs, businessman and investor Jared Kushner has traveled the unique path of bringing private sector knowledge to government work and back again. Jared Kushner joins Sarah Guo and Elad Gil to cover a wide range of topics, from his founding of investment firm Affinity Partners, to his time in government, to his new AI venture BrainCo. Jared discusses Affinity Partners’ mission and strategy, how he has leveraged his government experience in business and investing, and the geopolitics of technological advancements like AI. Plus, he makes a case for why private sector talent should do “tours of duty” in government. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @jaredkushner Chapters: 00:00 – Jared Kushner Introduction 00:30 – Starting Affinity Partners Post-Government 01:59 – Value of Global Perspective 03:34 – Ventures with Affinity 05:14 – Evaluating Investments Via Macro Trends 09:09 – Undervalued Countries 12:32 – Origins of BrainCo 16:50 – BrainCo Use Cases 23:49 – BrainCo’s Biggest Challenge 24:47 – Determining Customer Fit 26:39 – AI and Policy 30:03 – Middle East and AI 31:59 – Jared’s Experience in Middle East Diplomacy 40:16 – Brokering Peace Post-October 7th 43:52 – Making Deals with Middle Eastern Partners 47:14 – Jared and Ivanka’s Partnership 49:18 – Benefits of Joining Public Sector from the Private Sector 52:07 – Jared’s Pitch for Serving in Government 56:25 – Jared’s Leadership Style 58:24 – Conclusion

Sarah GuohostJared KushnerguestElad Gilhost

Sep 10, 202558mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Jared Kushner on AI, global investing, and transforming Middle East ties

Jared Kushner discusses how his firm Affinity Partners positions itself as a global, deeply involved investment partner that solves complex problems for governments and corporations, often in underpriced or misunderstood markets like Albania and Israel.
He explains the origin and strategy of BrainCo, an AI implementation and platform company co-founded with Elad Gil and others, aimed at bringing frontier AI into the world’s largest institutions through high‑impact, data‑rich use cases.
Kushner connects his government experience—especially Middle East diplomacy and the Abraham Accords—to his current investing worldview, emphasizing macro tailwinds, governance quality, and cross‑border economic ties as engines of stability and growth.
He also advocates for private‑sector talent to serve in government, arguing that the experience radically broadens perspective, creates outsized impact, and complements later business-building, much like a high‑intensity “two‑year business school stint.”

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Use macro tailwinds and governance quality as a first filter for investing.

Kushner stresses that understanding a country’s macro trends, leadership, and regulatory stance toward private capital is essential; surfing great waves with even mediocre skill beats being world‑class in bad conditions.

Look for underpriced geographies and institutions, not just underpriced stocks.

With only ~200 countries but thousands of tradable companies, Kushner argues that entire nations like Albania or Israel at moments of perceived risk can be mispriced, creating outsized return opportunities for patient, informed investors.

AI value comes from concrete, workflow‑integrated use cases, not hype.

BrainCo focuses on large institutions with rich data, clear command structures, and complex problems—such as hospital throughput, insurance claims, hospitality bookings, and construction permitting—where AI can materially cut cost, time, and corruption.

A dynamic AI platform must continuously track model advances to avoid obsolescence.

Because base models improve rapidly, Kushner argues that AI implementations must be designed as living systems—updated as capabilities change—rather than one‑off, static projects that quickly become outdated.

Cross‑border pattern recognition can create non‑obvious investment theses.

By comparing how similar businesses operate in India, the Middle East, Europe, and the US, generalist investors can import models and monetization approaches others miss, much like Yuri Milner did with early Facebook.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

By being global, we’ve realized there are entire countries that are underpriced, not just companies.

— Jared Kushner

With AI, you can’t just assume tomorrow is going to be like yesterday.

— Jared Kushner

If I’m going to fail at a hard problem, at least let me fail in an original way.

— Jared Kushner

Change is like heaven—everyone wants to go there, but nobody wants to die.

— Jared Kushner

Once your mind expands, it never returns to its original size.

— Jared Kushner (attributing the idea to Einstein)

Affinity Partners’ investment philosophy and global, macro‑driven underwritingIdentifying underpriced or underappreciated countries and marketsBrainCo’s founding, AI implementation strategy, and key enterprise use casesAI policy, energy infrastructure, and US–Middle East geopolitical dynamicsThe Abraham Accords and rethinking Middle East diplomacyCross‑border capital flows between Gulf states and IsraelPrivate‑sector leaders serving in government and lessons from public service

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