Topline
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her financier husband intentionally sold 25,000 shares of Nvidia at a loss last July to avoid public scrutiny, leaving behind millions of dollars in unrealized profit had they held onto the chipmaker stock amid its meteoric rise this year.
The Pelosis’ ill-fated Nvidia sale last summer was no accident.
Key Facts
Paul Pelosi sold 25,000 shares of Nvidia at a share price of $165.05 on July 26, 2022, his politician wife disclosed in a regulatory filing at the time, taking a $341,365 loss on a stake worth $4.1 million.
That same position was worth $10.5 million Friday, when Nvidia traded at $422 per share, meaning Pelosi left more than $6 million on the table by closing his position on the chipmaker when he did.
But the ill-timed trade was intentional: Drew Hammill, Nancy Pelosi’s then-deputy chief of staff, told Forbes last year that Paul Pelosi “decided to sell the shares at a loss rather than allow the misinformation in the press regarding this trade to continue,” alluding to the sale coming shortly before the Senate’s passage of legislation aimed at boosted domestic chipmakers like Nvidia.
Nvidia shares are up about 155% since Pelosi’s trade, making it by far the best-performing stock on the S&P 500, according to FactSet data, riding the artificial intelligence boom to by far the highest share price in the company’s 24-year trading history.
Key Background
The Pelosis still own between $15 million and $75 million million worth of American tech giants Alphabet, Amazon and Apple despite holding no Nvidia, according to their annual financial disclosure. Paul Pelosi exercised $2.6 million worth of stock options in Apple and Microsoft last week. Headquartered just south of Pelosi’s congressional district in Santa Clara, Nvidia became the seventh $1 trillion company earlier this year after beating Wall Street’s expectations for recent sales and sharing “cosmological” profit forecasts due largely to its generative AI segment.
Tangent
Eight members of Congress have bought Nvidia stock over the last year, making it one of the most popular stocks on the Hill, according to Quiver Quantitative’s tracker. They include Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Reps. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) and Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.). Several Democratic and Republican politicians have supported a ban on all trading activity among Congress members and their direct relatives, though legislation has yet to move forward in a meaningful way.
Further Reading
Pelosi Unloads Millions In Nvidia Stock At A Loss Before Senate Passes Massive Tech Subsidies (Forbes)
Pelosi Exercises $2.6 Million Of Apple And Microsoft Stock Options (Forbes)
Bigger Than Amazon? Nvidia Stock Surges After ‘Cosmological’ Profit Projections (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/06/30/pelosi-misses-out-on-millions-after-selling-nvidia-stake-to-avoid-misinformation-last-july/