Soft-spoken and measured, Joshua Kushner doesn’t have much in common with the venture investors who have come to dominate public conversations (and podcasts) about politics over the past year. That’s probably why he doesn’t give many interviews.
But on Tuesday, the 39-year-old founder of Thrive Capital spoke at Fortune Global Forum in Manhattan as a newly minted VC titan, thanks to his lead role in OpenAI’s latest funding round last month that valued the startup at a staggering $157 billion. He had previously invested early in companies including Instagram, GitHub, and Spotify.
Kushner is no stranger to Fortune, having appeared on our cover in August and as the 96th most powerful person in business in our inaugural ranking published on Tuesday. But his interview yesterday comes at perhaps the apex of his career thus far—and also its most precarious point.
The election of Donald Trump throws every aspect of the tech industry into question. But Kushner is even more intertwined with the president-elect than most, thanks to his brother, Jared, the husband of Ivanka Trump and a former senior advisor to her father. The older Kushner brother will reportedly not return to the White House.
Joshua Kushner has been characteristically private on the matter, declining to comment on the record about any political differences with his brother for the cover story outside of a brief statement: “I love my brother dearly. Anyone who has an issue with that is not someone I care to have in my life.”
Interviewed on Tuesday by Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell, who also wrote the magazine profile, Kushner provided a similarly guarded response when asked about Trump’s return. “Irrespective of who our president is, it’s very important that we’re all patriotic,” he said. He also declined to blame the Biden administration for the chilly M&A market, instead arguing that investors need to “disconnect liquidity from progress in terms of technology,” a ding at prioritizing public market performance over innovation.
Elon Musk may pose a greater risk to Joshua’s portfolio than Jared’s political activity. Musk, after all, has a longstanding public feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the man to whom Kushner has staked his firm’s fortune. But even about Musk, Kushner proved unflappable. “My core belief is he leads with intentionality and an orientation with regards to what is best for humanity,” Kushner said.
In an age where VCs stand out for their bombast, Kushner continues to prove an enigma. Thanks to its massive gamble on OpenAI, Thrive has established itself as one of the most influential firms in the space—a far cry from its beginnings, when Kushner said that every investor he met with turned him down. (Princeton University’s endowment ended up providing Thrive with its seed funding.)
Kushner even seemed nonplussed about his gutsy stake in OpenAI, arguing that he has full conviction that the company will be among the few winners in the nascent space. “Our view is you want to invest in Fifth Avenue,” he said. “You want to be in the high-quality companies that you want to own for decades to come.”
Kushner’s colleague, Thrive Capital executive chairman Nitin Nohria, took the stage later in the afternoon, joined by none other than NFL superstar Tom Brady. (As a New Englander, I have to admit this was the highlight of my week.) Brady made up for Kushner’s reticence, revealing his personal philosophy on competition, which didn’t really seem to mesh with Thrive’s approach.
“I had to create an enemy,” as Brady put it. “FEA.”
Or, in less delicate terms, “F**k ‘em all.”
Elsewhere...Jessica Mathews has a deeply reported investigation on Canoo, the once-red-hot electric vehicle company that has seen its stock plummet more than 99% since its 2020 SPAC offering. Mathews uncovered that one of Canoo’s bright spots, an agreement with Walmart, led the startup to deliver vans without airbags—a critical, legally required component. You can read her full article, which dives into Canoo’s tenuous financial position, here.
Leo Schwartz
Twitter: @leomschwartz
Email: leo.schwartz@fortune.com
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