President Trump’s Nvidia Purchases Linked to Policy Shift on AI Chip Exports

President Donald Trump bought between $1 million and $5 million of Nvidia shares in the days preceding his administration’s decision in May 2025 to eliminate a rule that had limited the export of advanced American AI chips to China. The purchases were identified by DeKleptocracy, an anti-corruption organization that reviewed the president’s financial disclosures. The same disclosures also recorded purchases of shares in Apple, Meta and Microsoft.

The rule, introduced under the previous administration, was known as the “AI Diffusion Framework” and was intended to restrict China’s access to the United States’ most advanced AI technology for national-security reasons. The Trump administration’s repeal removed those limits, allowing Nvidia to sell its chips, including the H200 model, to Chinese customers. The Department of Commerce approved the H200 sales in January 2026 after the president announced the policy change in December 2025.

Nvidia’s share price rose after the policy reversal, and the president made at least three additional Nvidia purchases, each valued between $250,001 and $500,000, in the weeks following the H200 decision. DeKleptocracy noted that the timing of the transactions raises questions about a possible conflict of interest and called for scrutiny of the president’s financial interests alongside other alleged influences on U.S. AI policy.

"While the country debates how a possible Chinese spy may have manipulated White House policy for one AI company, it must grapple with how Trump's corruption may have motivated him to deliver the entire AI industry's technology to China," the group wrote in its analysis.