Who Is Josh Kushner? Lakers Buyer, Man Behind FIFA's Failed Deal

Josh Kushner just closed the largest sports deal in American history, and it's tangled up with a FIFA controversy from weeks earlier. The Thrive Capital founder, alongside former Disney CEO Bob Iger, has agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for roughly $12 billion. That news lands just weeks after Kushner's firm was floated as the anchor investor in a FIFA plan to sell off a piece of the World Cup's commercial business — a plan that ultimately blew up in Gianni Infantino's face.

The Lakers sale is confirmed. Multiple outlets, including ESPN, reported the record-breaking price on August 12. But the backstory linking Kushner to soccer's governing body is what makes this more than just another NBA ownership headline.

Kushner isn't a basketball or football executive by trade. He founded Thrive Capital, a venture firm with early bets on companies like Instagram and OpenAI. He's also the younger brother of Jared Kushner, husband of Ivanka Trump and a former White House advisor during Donald Trump's first term.

Before the Lakers, Josh already held minority stakes in other NBA teams, including the Miami Heat. It fits a broader pattern: tech money moving into high-value sports franchises, a common play in US sports where funds treat team ownership stakes like equity positions.

Weeks before the Lakers news broke, Kushner's firm was named as the expected lead investor in a FIFA project to create a commercial subsidiary tied to the World Cup, the Club World Cup, and other tournaments. The plan valued that commercial arm at around $20 billion and aimed to sell a non-controlling stake of roughly 20% for up to $4.2 billion.

Part of that money was set to be distributed to FIFA's 211 member federations as an extraordinary payment. This wasn't Kushner taking a seat inside FIFA — it was a straightforward financial play, similar to a fund buying into broadcasting rights or a league's commercial pool.

The political angle made the deal far more sensitive than a typical investment. Jared Kushner has a long-standing relationship with Infantino, having helped broker the joint United States-Mexico-Canada bid for the 2026 World Cup during Trump's first term. That history meant the proposed FIFA investment wasn't read purely as business — it looked like money connected to Trump's inner circle buying into the World Cup's commercial structure.

FIFA abandoned the proposal in late July after UEFA led the pushback, arguing the World Cup "is not FIFA's to sell." The tournament, built collectively by federations over decades, wasn't something to be sliced up among private investors, according to UEFA, CONCACAF, and other confederations that publicly rejected the plan.

The backlash included boycott threats against FIFA competitions, at least one high-profile resignation among Infantino's advisors, and political pressure in the US over how the deal had been arranged without transparency. Facing a real threat to his presidency, Infantino had no real choice but to pull the plan.

Infantino comes out of this weakened, with fresh doubts about his leadership style and his closeness to American political figures — even as he still holds plenty of goodwill from hosting a widely praised 2026 World Cup. The episode is also a reminder of how aggressively American tech capital is chasing global sports assets, and how that push hit a political wall with the World Cup that it simply doesn't face in the NBA.

Kushner, for now, still has no formal role in football. The Lakers deal is closed. The FIFA deal is dead.