Jared Kushner plans to use his new private-equity fund to invest millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia into Israeli startups, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the investment plan. Kushner’s Affinity Partners has raised over $3 billion, $2 billion of which comes from the Saudi sovereign-wealth fund. The Saudis agreed that their money could be used to invest in Israeli companies prior to committing the funds, the Journal reported. Affinity already has chosen the first two Israeli firms in which it will invest, according to the report.
It will be the first time that the Saudi Public Investment Fund will put money into Israel, a county with which it does not have diplomatic relations, according to the report, and is seen as a way to lay the groundwork toward normalization.
Kushner, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, called his investment plans an extension of his work in the White House to advance ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors, which includes the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements signed between Israel and four Arab and North African countries.
Kushner and the Journal report did not name the Israeli firms that would benefit from the Saudi investment. Kushner has met with Israeli startups working on subjects from health care and agriculture to software and cyber.