Nancy Pelosi, husband betting millions on Nvidia despite scrutiny of congressional stock trading
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her venture capitalist husband are once again betting big on AI software giant Nvidia after dumping their shares in the company amid scrutiny of congressional stock trading, according to new filings.
The X account known as Congresstrading, which tracks stock trades executed by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, published a screenshot of a disclosure form that showed that Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat, and sitting congresswoman, bought 50 call options with a strike price of $120 and an expiration date of Dec. 20, 2024.
The transaction, made last month, was for $2 million, according to popular stock-trading news site Unusual Whales. The disclosure form showed the amount as between $1 million and $5 million.
“Pelosi bet millions on $NVDA in November using call options. Using a deceptive tactic, she purposely disclosed this on the Friday before Christmas weekend to avoid media coverage,” Congresstrading tweeted.
The Post has sought comment from Nancy and Paul Pelosi.
Pelosi, 83, sparked outrage when she was House Speaker by resisting calls to enact legislation that would bar sitting members of Congress and their spouses from buying and selling stock in companies they regulate.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia, which is listed on the Nasdaq index, closed Friday at 488.30. Trading resumes on Tuesday after the markets were closed for Christmas.
Financial experts said that the Pelosis’ investment shows they are bullish on Nvidia in the coming year.
A call option “grants the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy a specific quantity of an underlying asset at a predetermined price within a specified time frame,” Justin Rush, a financial planner with the Michigan-based family wealth management firm Nemes Rush, told The Post on Monday.
“This can be advantageous when you anticipate the value of the asset will rise, allowing you to buy it at a lower, predetermined cost,” he added.
Paul Pelosi is a noted trader and the couple has a reported net worth of more than $140 million. They have netted millions of dollars in profit from buying call options on blue-chip stocks such as Google, Salesforce, Roblox, and Disney.
In July of last year, the pair announced that they sold 25,000 shares of Nvidia at an average price point of $165.05 a share — netting themselves a sale price of $4.125 million.
The Pelosis ended up losing $341,365 on the trade, according to the financial news site Benzinga.
The couple also sold 50 call options on Nvidia with a strike price of $100 and an expiration of Sept. 16, 2022, for a loss of $361,476, it was reported by Benzinga.
At the time, the moves raised eyebrows since Nvidia shares rose in the run-up to Congress voting on the CHIPS Act, the Biden administration’s legislation aimed at boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
Pelosi publicly supported the CHIPS Act and Nvidia, a semiconductor manufacturer, stood to gain from the law’s passage.
Selling off shares of Nvidia proved to be a financial mistake for the Pelosis since the stock price has surged by close to 200%.
If the couple had held on to their 25,000 shares, the value of their stake would be worth in excess of $12.2 million — netting them a profit of more than $8 million.
