Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund will indirectly invest in the Israeli high tech sector, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
The Gulf kingdom's sovereign-wealth fund has reportedly entrusted $2 billion to Affinity Partners – a private equity fund set up by former US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner with the aim of investing in Israeli startups – effectively allowing investment in Israeli firms for the first time.
Formed in the summer of 2020, Affinity Partners has raised $3 billion from investors worldwide with aim of investing in American and Israeli companies eyeing international expansion opportunities in India, Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Asia.
Created in 1971, Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund – officially the Public Investment Fund – is among the largest of its kind in the world, with estimated assets of $620 billion.
Riyadh and Jerusalem do not maintain formal diplomatic relations, although they share many regional interests and a common archfoe – Iran. The move is seen as yet another public expression of the warming ties between the two.
Israeli media reports said that Affinity officials met with about a dozen Israeli firms in March, and according to the WSJ, two have been selected as investment targets. Still, the fund has yet to decide on whether to set up offices in Israel.
Kushner, a top adviser to the Trump presidency, was one of the architects of the Abraham Accords. Inked in September 2020, the historic treaty saw the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalize ties with the Jewish state, and Sudan and Morocco soon did the same.
Israel has made it no secret that it would like to see Saudi Arabia join the accords as well, but the Saudis have repeatedly tied the issue to a future resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israeli officials – including President Isaac Herzog – have acknowledged that much of the move depends on internal processes in Saudi Arabia, and on Saudi-US relations.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Kushner is also likely to serve as a mediator for deals between the Jewish state and the Gulf kingdom outside the realm of business and trade.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
