President purchased up to $5m of stock before revoking Biden-era rule that limited Nvidia’s ability to sell to China
Donald Trump bought Nvidia stock worth millions of dollars as he made decisions on America’s China policy that would benefit the chipmaker, an analysis has found.
In May 2025, Trump’s administration rescinded a Biden-era rule designed to prevent the most advanced US AI chips from being exported to China.
This rule aimed to strengthen the US’s own chip industry and to protect America from what was widely regarded as a national security threat: the possibility that China might develop superior AI.
In the days before he rescinded the rule, Trump’s public financial disclosures indicate that he bought between $1m (£760,000) and $5m worth of Nvidia stock – a purchase noted in an analysis by the anti-corruption group DeKleptocracy.
He also bought shares in other tech companies, including Microsoft, Meta and Apple.
The diffusion rule would have limited Nvidia’s ability to sell to what has been one of its largest markets: China accounted for about a quarter of the company’s sales between 2010 and 2022. Nvidia’s shares rose in value just after Trump announced the rescission of the rule, and after he had bought the stock.
In December 2025 Trump said he would allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China, a…
