Donald Trump purchased between $1m and $5m worth of Nvidia stock in the days before his administration rescinded a Biden-era export rule in May 2025, according to an analysis by anti-corruption group DeKleptocracy. The rule had been designed to prevent advanced US-made AI chips from being sold to China, which the previous administration regarded as a national security threat. Trump also bought shares in Apple, Meta and Microsoft during the same period.
The rescinded rule would have severely limited Nvidia's access to one of its largest markets. China accounted for roughly a quarter of the company's sales between 2010 and 2022. Nvidia's share price rose after Trump announced the rescission and following his stock purchases. The chipmaker's shares have continued to benefit from subsequent policy decisions: in December 2025, Trump said he would allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China, a move approved by the Department of Commerce in January 2026. Trump made at least three further purchases of Nvidia shares after announcing this decision, each valued between $250,001 and $500,000.
Experts described the H200 as one of Nvidia's most advanced chips, reportedly six times more capable than technology available in China at that time. The Council on Foreign Relations warned that selling the H200 would 'supercharge' China's future AI factories and strengthen the US's main rival. DeKlektocracy's analysis stated: '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 timing of Trump's stock purchases alongside his policy decisions comes as the US grapples with a separate scandal involving Nvidia's former chief executive Jensen Huang. Huang is reported to have had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy, Alice Huang, a relationship that allowed her company Megaspeed to obtain billions of dollars worth of Nvidia chips while other firms struggled to access supply. Trump received two briefings from US intelligence officials concluding that Alice Huang was a Chinese asset but did not act on this assessment. Huang, described as a close Trump ally who has met the president multiple times, contributed $25m to a Trump ballroom in October 2025, saying he was 'delighted to be a part of it'.
For UK investors and savers with exposure to Nvidia or the wider US technology sector through pension funds or investment portfolios, Trump's policy shift has increased the company's access to Chinese markets, raising its profit prospects but also raising questions about the strategic implications of advanced US technology reaching Chinese firms.