Money Grab/Charge for access to the president
Kushner’s Affinity joins Saudi-led $55 billion EA buyout
On September 29, 2025, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners agreed to take Electronic Arts private for $55 billion, the largest leveraged buyout on record. Affinity was seeded with a $2 billion commitment from the same Saudi fund.
What happened
On September 29, 2025, Electronic Arts agreed to be taken private at $210 a share in cash, a 25% premium to its price four days earlier, valuing the company at about $55 billion. It was the largest leveraged buyout on record. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund led the consortium, with Silver Lake and Affinity Partners as co-investors.
The financing was about $36 billion in equity, including the rollover of PIF’s existing 9.9% stake, and about $20 billion in debt committed by JPMorgan. EA shareholders approved the deal on December 22, 2025, and it closed on August 4, 2026. EA is now private.
Affinity Partners was founded by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, in 2021, six months after he left the White House. PIF seeded it with a $2 billion commitment in 2022, and it reportedly added about $1.5 billion in late 2024 from Qatar’s QIA and Abu Dhabi’s Lunate. Affinity is a minority co-investor in EA. The $55 billion is the total transaction value, not a payment to Kushner, and this record does not count it as money to the family.
Who benefited
Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners took a position in a record buyout alongside the sovereign fund that supplied most of its capital. It will earn management fees and carried interest on the investment. EA’s shareholders were bought out at a 25% premium.
Who wanted something
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund led the deal, already owned 9.9% of EA, and had seeded Kushner’s fund with $2 billion three years earlier. Qatar and Abu Dhabi also had money in Affinity. All three Gulf governments have ongoing dealings with the U.S. government, including on the Gaza plan Kushner helped negotiate.
Who lost out
No public money is in this deal. A firm run by the president’s son-in-law and funded mainly by foreign governments took part in a $55 billion U.S. transaction while he served as an unpaid envoy for his father-in-law.
Why it matters
The president’s son-in-law runs a fund bankrolled by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. That fund joined the Saudi state in the largest leveraged buyout on record during his father-in-law’s presidency, while he negotiated on the administration’s behalf in the same region.
Sources Game InformerFinancier WorldwideVarietyElectronic Arts Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1 (SEC) (primary)Game Informer