Donald Trump Jr. received an equity stake in prediction market platform Kalshi worth roughly $300,000 at the time it was granted, and that stake could be worth far more as the company eyes a valuation of around $40 billion, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Trump Jr. did not invest his own money. Kalshi granted him the equity when he joined the company as a strategic adviser in early 2025, at a time when the company was valued at under $2 billion. Last month, Kalshi completed a funding round at a $22 billion valuation, more than ten times what it was worth when Trump Jr. received his stake. The company is now reportedly in talks to raise additional capital at a $40 billion valuation as soon as the third quarter of this year.
Kalshi has operated in a favorable regulatory environment since the start of the Trump administration. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which had previously tried to block Kalshi's event contracts on congressional elections, dropped its appeal against the company in May 2025. Two months after that, the Department of Justice ended a separate probe into rival platform Polymarket over whether it had illegally accepted bets from American traders.
Trump Jr. announced his Kalshi role in January 2025 on X, writing that his family had used the platform on election night to know they had won "hours ahead of the fake news media."
His involvement with Kalshi is part of a broader set of business relationships. Trump Jr. also sits on Polymarket's advisory board and holds a small stake in online weapons retailer GrabAGun. He joined cage-fighting group MMA as a strategic adviser last September. Together with his brother Eric, he has contributed to a $1 billion investment pool directed at drone manufacturers and cryptocurrency companies.
Kalshi and Polymarket have both grown substantially in recent years. The platforms now attract billions in dollars of monthly trading volume. That growth has not come without friction. Sports betting on both platforms has triggered lawsuits from several U.S. states.
Kalshi and spokespeople for Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
