A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high net worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Equity Group Investments, backed by the family of late billionaire Sam Zell, owns a John Deere dealership, a bluefin tuna fishery and a pedestrian bridge that connects San Diego to Tijuana International Airport.

While those holdings sound entirely unrelated, what unites the private investment firm’s wide-ranging portfolio is a focus on old-economy businesses that are less susceptible to disruption from artificial intelligence and other technologies, according to EGI’s president, Mark Sotir.

“We tend to put our capital to work for a longer duration than most [private equity] firms. If you’re thinking out 10 years, 12 years, you have to start with picking a company in an industry that you know will be around,” he said. “That’s why we shy away from some tech and some startups. It’s not because we don’t like doing them. It’s just very hard for me to tell you where software is going to be 10 years out.”

The anti-AI trade gained steam on Wall Street earlier this year, dubbed “HALO” for “heavy assets, low obsolescence.” Family offices already employ the same strategy with private markets as they invest for generations and value the cash flow that often comes with old-economy businesses, according to Sotir. Economic uncertainty and tax reform has also made backing these asset-heavy companies more attractive.

Asset-heavy businesses tend to deter traditional PE investors who are looking to buy and sell within three to seven years, giving family offices opportunities to acquire at a discount, according to Sotir.

“Everybody gets so enamored with asset-light, but I like to say, ‘If you’re paying an asset-light premium, then I’m not sure where the advantage is,'” he said.

The “one big beautiful bill” law also provided a boon to owners of these businesses by renewing bonus depreciation, enabling companies to deduct the full cost of qualifying assets like machinery or vehicles the first year they are used.

“It’s a very material change that can make a big difference in terms of the tax benefit,” said Brian Hans, who leads the tax efficiency strategists for UBS’ advanced planning group. “Family office clients are increasingly approaching investing in general with more proactive tax planning, looking at the after-tax return, calculating what the return from the investment is going to be, and factoring that in when making the decision to invest.”

If the family participates in the business as an active investment, the depreciation can potentially be deducted against income on other investments like stocks, Hans added. This is a sizable benefit for families that have highly appreciated stock holdings, he said.

Auto and equipment dealerships are ripe for taking advantage of bonus depreciation and check off other important boxes for families like reliable cash flow, according to Joe Mowery, head of dealership investment banking at Stephens.

“It’s very simple. They like a tax-advantaged income stream,” Mowery said.

While inflation and other economic trends can weigh on consumers’ ability to buy vehicles and equipment, the parts and service business is resilient and has high margins, according to Mowery.

“It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have. You know, you got to get to work, you got to take the kids to school, whatever the case may be,” he said.

Old-economy businesses aren’t immune to disruption, but they can come with geographic moats, limiting competition, according to Sotir. For instance, EGI owns John Deere and Kenworth dealerships. Thanks to the franchise terms, Sotir said he does not have to worry about another dealership of the same brand opening nearby.

As for EGI’s bluefin tuna fishing and farming business in Baja California, there are substantial barriers to entry due to quotas on fishing, according to Sotir.

EGI isn’t under pressure to deploy capital, unlike traditional PE firms, as it’s family backed, Sotir said, noting the firm typically makes one to two deals a year. Sotir said the firm is receiving more inbound queries from business owners who are pressured by tariffs, inflation and other factors.

“The amount of uncertainty that people are dealing with has oddly turned into a benefit for us,” he said.

There are attractive opportunities in agriculture, with farms under tremendous stress, Sotir said. The challenges are real, such as the rising costs of fertilizer and fuel, but EGI can afford to wait for a payoff, he said.

“People are worried about the space, and that’s the perfect time for us to step in to buy,” he said. “Even if the value doesn’t come in the first two, three years, that’s okay, as long as we know it’s coming, because we’ve got that duration.”

If new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is still itching for a “good family fight” over monetary policy, he is likely to get one if he sticks to his guns on interest rate cuts.

With inflation spiking and Treasury yields surging, Warsh is likely to confront a Federal Open Market Committee in no mood to ease. In fact, several officials of late have stressed the need for the Fed to keep its options open for rate hikes ahead.

If it looked like outgoing Governor Stephen Miran was a lone wolf howling for reductions, seeing a Fed chair trying to defy his fellow policymakers and push for cuts will loom even larger.

Those who have watched Warsh over the years, from his prior stint as a Fed governor through his high-profile public disagreements with Fed policy since, expect him to put up strong arguments for cutting. The problem is, he’s likely to lose at least in the short term, a situation that sets up some interesting communication issues for the new central bank leader.

“I saw him in action. He does base his decisions on his view of the economy, and even his arguments for why he would favor rate decreases in general were based on his read of what’s happening structurally in the economy,” said former Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, who served with the Philadelphia Fed during the prior period when Warsh was on the board. “I just don’t think right now he can make those arguments in a credible way, because we have an inflation problem.”

Indeed, surging inflation will be Warsh’s first and primary policy challenge.

Officially, Warsh has echoed much of the Trump administration’s position on the current run of price surges — mainly that they are temporary and will fade once the fighting in Iran ceases and various disinflationary forces, such as increased productivity, take over.

However, those arguments face a tougher audience now with inflation levels at multi-year highs.

Warsh made the “family fight” remarks during his Senate confirmation hearing, a remark, along with other caustic comments he’s made about the Fed, that central bank observers privately say could come back to haunt him.

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Wall Street advisors were kept busy in December — from the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war to Trump Media’s $6 billion merger with a nuclear fusion company. However, private investment firms of ultra-rich families were in no rush to ink deals before the year-end.

In December, family offices made 35 direct investments in companies, down about 62% on an annual basis, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by private wealth platform Fintrx. The results capped off a subdued year for family office dealmaking, as firms dialed back their direct bets in light of tariff uncertainty and geopolitical conflict.

Even so, millennial and Gen X heirs are continuing to make their mark through their family offices.

Motier Ventures, one of the most active family offices per Fintrx’s data, was founded by Guillaume Houzé, the 44-year-old, fifth-generation heir to French department store chain Galeries Lafayette. The French firm, known for its tech-heavy portfolio, joined a 7.2 million euro ($8.5 million) seed round for blood testing startup Lucis in December.

Next-gen heirs frequently invest outside the industries that created their family fortunes. Last month billionaire eyewear heir Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio acquired 30% of Italian right-wing news outlet Il Giornale through the newly established media division of his family office, LMDV Capital. Del Vecchio, whose late father founded Luxottica, said in an interview with Italian press that he doesn’t expect large returns and is investing out of a sense of civic responsibility.

“My desire is to build an Italian information hub, untied by the colors of politics. No left or right, for the future of our children and of Italy,” the 30-year-old told L’Economia, according to a CNBC translation. “Publishing needs a new force, also to re-establish the connection with young people who are looking for information but in the wrong places. I would like these young people to go back to turning the pages of print newspapers and magazine and getting their hands dirty with ink.”

Ultra-high-net-worth families have traditionally used philanthropy as a means to bring the next generation into the fold, and it’s still a popular route. However, families are increasingly using direct investing — often with a sustainability bent — to engage heirs, according to Scott Saslow, a family office consultant and principal.

“Those families have found interesting ways to engage the next gen by saying, ‘Hey, you know, this isn’t about having a nice house or driving a nice car. This is about being able to do something pretty impactful in the world with this capital from this place of privilege,'” he said.

According to UBS’ most recent family office survey, just under a third of family offices said they expected next-generation family members to be involved in direct investments, and 39% said they expected the next gen to help manage investments.

— CNBC’s Gaelle Legrand contributed to this report.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Wednesday that his family’s immigration to the U.S. “would not have been possible” with the Trump administration’s current policy.

President Donald Trump announced in September that employers would have to pay a $100,000 fee for each H-1B visa, a temporary worker visa granted to foreign professionals with specialized skills.

Huang, who was born in Taiwan and later moved Thailand, immigrated to the U.S. at nine years old with his brother. His parents joined them around two years later.

“I don’t think that my family would have been able to afford the $100,000 and and so the opportunity for my, my family and for me to be here … would not have been possible,” Huang told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Trump’s sudden price hike was a shock to the tech sector, which relies heavily on foreign talent, especially from India and China.

Amazon was the top employer for H-1B holders in fiscal year 2025, sponsoring over 10,000 applicants according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Tech juggernauts Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google were also among the top H-1B employers, with over 4,000 approvals each.

“Immigration is the foundation of the American dream,” Huang said, “this ideal that anyone can come to America and through hard work and some talent, be able to build a better future for yourself.”

Huang added that his own parents came to the U.S. so that his family could “enjoy the opportunities” and “this incredible country.”

The CEO confirmed that Nvidia, which currently sponsors 1,400 visas, would continue covering H-1B fees for immigrant employees. Huang said that he hopes to see some “enhancements” to the policy so that there’s “still some opportunities for serendipity to happen.”

While his own family’s journey would have been blocked by Trump’s immigration policy, Huang said Trump’s changes will still allow the U.S. “to continue to attract the world’s best talent.”

And other tech executives have expressed support for the changes, with Netflix‘s Reed Hastings calling the fee “a great solution” in a post on X.

“It will mean H1-B is used just for very high value jobs, which will mean no lottery needed, and more certainty for those jobs,” Hastings wrote.

In September, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC’s Jon Fortt that he also backed Trump’s changes.

“We need to get the smartest people in the country, and streamlining that process and also sort of outlining financial incentives seems good to me,” Altman said.