Jared Kushner’s investment fund is not especially large by global finance standards. But as he gets it fully up and running, each step is bringing with it ethical issues that would only grow if his father-in-law, Donald J. Trump, should win another term as president.
His $3 billion fund is financed almost entirely from overseas investors with whom he worked when he served as a senior adviser in the Trump White House. He has taken money from government wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as from Terry Gou, a founder of Foxconn, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer, whose role in Mr. Kushner’s firm has not been previously disclosed.
His increased visibility these days stands in contrast to his posture after Jan. 6, when he and Ms. Trump retreated from the public eye and made their home on an island near Miami that the tabloids labeled “Billionaire Bunker.”
The podcast interviews and university appearances he has made since the Oct. 7 attack in Israel have generally been friendly affairs in which Mr. Kushner has not been confronted with questions about the potential for conflicts of interest should his father-in-law retake the presidency. One podcaster lauded Mr. Kushner as “one of the most influential presidential advisers in modern history.”
The impact on his business was immediate, Mr. Kushner said.
“That I think was very, very big for the firm because it opened up a whole new sector to us,” Mr. Kushner said of his appearance on a podcast hosted by Lex Fridman, a Russian American computer scientist, and a second podcast called All-In, both of which have large followings in Silicon Valley. Mr. Kushner said that after the shows, artificial-intelligence-related companies and other Silicon Valley investors had reached out to him looking for ways to work with his firm.
From Mr. Kushner’s perspective, this broader acceptance is a well-deserved counterpoint to media coverage that he felt unfairly questioned his motives and ethics.
But he is not just another financier.
In December, Mr. Kushner organized a lunch meeting in New York City with the prime minister of Qatar that featured investment industry stars including Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management and Barry Sternlicht of Starwood Capital to talk about the war in Gaza, a gathering reported earlier by Axios.
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