Trump Bought $1M–$5M in Nvidia Stock Before Scrapping AI Chip Curbs

U.S. President Donald Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million (about 1.33 billion to 6.68 billion won) in Nvidia stock days before repealing AI chip export controls in May, according to a Guardian report published on the 13th. The anti-corruption group DeKleptocracy, cited by the newspaper, documented the purchases. Nvidia stood to benefit directly from the rollback.

The timing is the core of the allegation. Trump bought the shares shortly before scrapping rules the former Joe Biden administration had drawn up to control shipments of advanced semiconductors to countries that are neither allies nor partners of the United States, including China. Nvidia's share price rose immediately after Trump announced the repeal, and after he bought the stock. The White House has not, so far, publicly addressed the purchase amounts.

What did the repealed framework actually do?

The Biden administration put the export control system in place in January 2025, in its final weeks in office. It was called the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion (a rulebook governing which countries may receive advanced AI chips, and in what volumes).

The framework sorted countries into three tiers:

• Allies and partners, such as South Korea, faced the fewest restrictions.
• General countries faced intermediate limits.
• Countries of concern — China, Russia and North Korea — faced the strictest barriers.

Under the rules, China would have found it harder to import chips from U.S. companies and to narrow the technology gap. The Trump administration scrapped the framework, arguing it stifled U.S. innovation and imposed an excessive regulatory burden on companies. That argument is a policy claim, not a verified market outcome, and no independent assessment accompanied the repeal.

What is the conflict-of-interest claim?

The Guardian stated the stakes plainly: "Had the AI Diffusion Framework taken effect, Nvidia would have faced constraints on selling its products in China, one of its largest markets."

The same report found that Trump bought Nvidia shares at least three times in December 2025. Those purchases came shortly after he said he would allow the company to sell its H200 chips in China. Each decision that eased chip access to China preceded a disclosed purchase, a pattern the report documents but does not, by itself, prove.

Trump also bought shares in other information technology companies at the time, including Apple, Meta and Microsoft. Those holdings complicate any claim that Nvidia was the sole motive for the policy reversal, though they do not eliminate the conflict-of-interest question.

How does the Huang affair connect?

The conflict-of-interest questions are expected to add fuel to a separate controversy. That dispute followed confirmation of a romantic relationship between former Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang and a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy.

The former CEO faces suspicions that he used Elise Huang, who is suspected of being a Chinese agent, to divert large volumes of Nvidia's advanced chips to China, or to leak company trade secrets or U.S. state secrets. None of these suspicions has resulted in charges to date.

Trump has been drawn into a dispute over whether he knew of those risks but looked the other way, either because of his personal ties to the former CEO or because of his own private interests. The report establishes the share purchases and the policy timing; it does not establish what Trump knew about Huang's alleged activities.

The Democratic Party has begun procedures for a formal investigation into the allegations involving Trump. DeKleptocracy's disclosure provides the purchase figures, but the gap between a documented trade and a proven quid pro quo remains the central evidentiary problem. Expect the investigation to focus on that gap.