Trump’s Stock Trades Under Fire: Nvidia, Palantir and Big Tech Investments Spark Conflict of Interest Debate

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TLDR

• Trump’s Q1 financial disclosures show over 3,700 trades worth between $220M and $750M in companies including Nvidia, Palantir, Microsoft, Boeing and Oracle
• Critics raised concerns that some trades appeared to coincide with related policy decisions, such as Nvidia chip sales being cleared for certain Chinese firms
• Trump’s team says assets are managed by independent third-party institutions through automated processes, with no input from Trump or his family
• Wall Street insiders described the trading volume — over 40 trades per day — as highly unusual, with one veteran calling it “baffling”
• Trump is the first sitting president required to disclose stock trades under the STOCK Act; previous presidents like Obama and Biden did not trade stocks while in office

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President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show he or his advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter of 2026, totaling between $220 million and $750 million. The trades involved some of the biggest names in tech, defense and retail.

Companies on the list include Nvidia, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Boeing, Palantir, Costco and others. The disclosures were filed with the US Office of Government Ethics in documents running over 100 pages.

NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA

The volume works out to more than 40 trades per day over a three-month period. That number surprised many on Wall Street.

“This is an insane amount of trades,” said Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management. He said the activity looks more like a hedge fund running automated trades than a personal account.

Eric Diton, president of The Wealth Alliance, echoed that view. “In the 40-plus years of my time on Wall Street, this is an unusual amount of trading by any standards,” he said.

Questions Over Timing

Some trades drew specific attention due to their timing relative to policy decisions.

Trump purchased Nvidia shares shortly before the government approved chip sales to certain Chinese firms. He also bought Palantir stock before posting on Truth Social praising the company’s “war fighting capabilities.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Trump of lobbying Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy Nvidia chips during a trip to Beijing. “The President’s corruption is a national security disaster,” she said.

Trump’s son Eric pushed back, saying the family’s assets are held in a blind trust managed by independent third-party institutions. “To suggest that individual stocks are being bought or sold at the discretion of any member of the Trump family would be a lie,” he wrote on X.

The White House also denied any wrongdoing. Spokesman David Ingle said Trump “only acts in the best interests of the American public” and that “there are no conflicts of interest.”

How This Compares to Past Presidents

Previous presidents took steps to separate their finances from their official duties. George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton both used blind trusts. Barack Obama kept his money in Treasury bills and diversified mutual funds. Joe Biden did not trade stocks while in office.

Trump is the first president to trigger the STOCK Act’s disclosure requirement, which was passed in 2012.

His biggest single-day sales came on February 10, when he sold holdings in Microsoft, Meta and Amazon, each worth between $5 million and $25 million.

Trump also filed both disclosures late, past the 45-day deadline required by law. The penalty is a $200 fine per late filing, which his records show he paid.

The government ethics office has granted Trump a 45-day extension on his annual financial disclosure, which covers income and assets from his broader business empire. That filing is now due June 29, 2026.