The husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sold more than $4 million worth of shares in software and computer-chip company Nvidia NVDA,
The trade by Paul Pelosi was executed on July 26, when he sold 25,000 shares at an average price of $165.05 per share, for a total loss of $341,365.
Last week, it was disclosed that Paul Pelosi had exercised call options for as much as $5 million worth of Nvidia stock ahead of deliberations in Congress about a bill that would boost the U.S. semiconductor industry.
The semiconductor bill, called the CHIPS-Plus Act or the Chips for America Act, continues to clear key procedural hurdles in the Senate and the House. The bill aims to provide grants, tax credits and other incentives for companies to manufacture semiconductors in the U.S.
It’s important to note that Nvidia designs its own chips, but hires other companies to manufacture them. So it doesn’t appear likely that Nvidia will directly receive benefits from subsidies related to this congressional bill.
Federal law mandates that members of Congress file reports within 45 days after they or their spouses buy or sell stocks with a value greater than $1,000.
The office of Speaker Pelosi did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment on this story.
In July, the Democratic speaker of the House said that her husband has “absolutely not” made any stock trades based on information from her.
On July 22, Speaker Pelosi was also asked about her husband exercising call options on Nvidia during a roundtable event about semiconductor chips.
“The timing is that a long time ago, my husband bought — we’re from San Francisco in the Silicon Valley area, so he had been following technology for a very long time,” she said. “These were options that were purchased a long time ago. You asked me about time — that came to now. That’s the timing.”
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“The Speaker does not own any stocks,” Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, said in a statement to Fox Business about the stock purchase last week. “As you can see from the required disclosures, with which the Speaker fully cooperates, these transactions are marked ‘SP’ for Spouse. The Speaker has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”
Some Republican and Democratic legislators have said they would be willing to ban members of Congress from buying and selling individual stocks, but there is not a lot of time before Congress takes its August recess for such a move.
Semiconductors are used in automobiles, phones, computers and many other popular consumer items, and the U.S. relies heavily on foreign countries for a large portion of its semiconductors. The U.S. global share of semiconductor production has dropped from 37% to 12% over the past three decades, according to the AP.
Paul Pelosi, 82, a businessman and private investor, also made headlines recently after being charged with driving under the influence in connection with a May 28 car crash in Northern California’s Napa County, where the Pelosis reportedly have a second home.
