July 2022 – The Nvidia Trade and Public Backlash
By mid-2022, pressure was growing. In June 2022, Paul Pelosi exercised options to buy 20,000 shares of Nvidia, one of the world’s top semiconductor firms. He already held 5,000 Nvidia shares from an earlier purchase in July 2021.
That summer, Congress was working on the CHIPS Act, a major subsidy package to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry. In other words, Pelosi was investing millions in a chip company right as the government (under Pelosi’s leadership in the House) was about to pass a $52 billion chip subsidy bill.
This looked so bad that, as media scrutiny grew, Pelosi’s office responded that she had no involvement or prior knowledge of her husband’s stock decisions. Facing the heat, Paul Pelosi abruptly sold all 25,000 Nvidia shares on July 26, 2022, just before the House vote, realizing about a $341,000 loss on the trade.
In this case, the Pelosis lost money, which Pelosi’s critics noted is ironic, the one time they sold under pressure to avoid the appearance of impropriety, it cost them. Nevertheless, the Nvidia episode was a PR fiasco. It led to headlines and renewed calls to ban congressional trading altogether.
Even Pelosi, who had long opposed such a ban, reversed her stance and said in early 2022 that she would consider legislation to restrict or ban stock trading by members of Congress.
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