Trump knew of Nvidia spying row a year ago, but ‘corruption’ drove him to sell AI tech to China: Report
US President Donald Trump carried out thousands of trades involving artificial intelligence companies in 2025, with several transactions taking place shortly before or after major government decisions affecting the industry, an analysis by anti-corruption group DeKleptocracy has found. The findings have raised questions about whether Trump’s personal investments were linked to policy decisions that opened up access to American AI technology for China.
The report has drawn particular attention to Nvidia, whose chief executive, Jensen Huang, became the subject of a separate intelligence controversy involving a woman suspected by US authorities of working for Chinese intelligence. The New York Times reported that Trump had been briefed about the intelligence findings roughly a year before they became public. Despite the warnings, his administration continued to ease restrictions on Nvidia’s chip sales to China, while Trump kept buying shares in the company.
Trump was reportedly warned about Nvidia CEO’s suspected Chinese spy link
The controversy surrounding Nvidia intensified after reports emerged about Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman and former executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based company that buys advanced Nvidia chips. The two are not related.
According to reporting by The New York Times, US intelligence officials concluded that Alice Huang was a Chinese intelligence asset who had been passing information to Beijing. Investigators had also examined whether she helped China gain access to advanced Nvidia AI chips. Surveillance reportedly revealed that she had developed a close relationship with Jensen Huang.
Trump was reportedly briefed about the intelligence findings in the autumn of 2025, around a year before the allegations became public. The New York Times reported that he did not act on the information at the time.
There was another briefing in May 2026. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly informed Trump aboard Air Force One, while the President was travelling to China, that US intelligence had obtained information about Huang’s relationship with a woman believed to be working for Chinese intelligence. Huang subsequently joined the presidential delegation at Trump’s invitation.
The revelations have raised questions about why the administration continued to support Nvidia’s access to the Chinese market despite the intelligence concerns. The allegations against Alice Huang remain allegations, and the suspected espionage has not been established through a public criminal finding.
Trump made thousands of AI stock trades around policy decisions
DeKleptocracy’s analysis goes beyond Trump’s investments in Nvidia. It examined his financial disclosures and found that he reported 53 Nvidia investments in 2025, alongside around 2,100 trades involving 68 companies linked to artificial intelligence.
Of these, 1,143 transactions involved chipmakers, cloud computing businesses and AI model companies. The group found that 159 trades took place within three days of important policy decisions, while another 208 fell within a seven-day window.
The timing of several transactions attracted particular attention.
On the day before the Trump administration revoked the Biden-era AI Diffusion Framework in May 2025, the President purchased between $1,000,001 and $5 million worth of Nvidia shares. His disclosures also recorded 95 trades across the wider AI industry that day.
The framework had been introduced under former President Joe Biden to restrict the export of advanced American AI chips to certain countries, including China. Its removal in May 2025 opened the door for Nvidia and other manufacturers to expand access to markets that had faced restrictions.
Another notable trading day came on July 23, 2025, when the administration announced its AI Action Plan. Trump bought between $1,000,001 and $5 million in Nvidia stock that day and carried out 93 trades involving AI companies, according to DeKleptocracy.
Nvidia, Intel and other AI investments feature in the analysis
The report also examined Trump’s trades around other major announcements involving the technology sector.
Four days before Trump announced that the US government would take a stake in Intel, he purchased between $250,001 and $500,000 worth of the company’s shares. DeKleptocracy said he also made 133 trades across the AI industry during that period.
The analysis flagged another set of transactions around Trump’s China tariff announcement. On October 10, 2025, the President threatened China with tariffs. A day earlier, he had sold stakes in 15 AI companies through 121 transactions, the group said.
Nvidia featured again in December 2025, when Trump announced that the company would be permitted to sell its H200 AI chips to China. The move came after Congress dropped proposed export restrictions from a defence bill the previous week, following pressure from the White House.
Trump made 19 AI-related trades on December 9, the day after the announcement, including a Nvidia transaction valued between $5,000,001 and $25 million. The disclosures also recorded 84 trades across the wider AI industry, according to DeKleptocracy.
The group further pointed to two announcements involving AI manufacturing and chip access in the Gulf. In May 2025, the administration announced a chip deal in Riyadh. Nine days later, Trump announced another AI manufacturing framework with the United Arab Emirates. Both developments sent Nvidia shares higher, the analysis said.
The UAE agreement also attracted scrutiny because of the country’s known Chinese military links. The report highlighted a separate financial connection involving Trump’s family business. Four days before his inauguration, the UAE’s national security adviser had secretly acquired a 49 per cent stake in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial. The same official chairs G42, the UAE company that secured approval to buy Nvidia chips.
DeKleptocracy also questioned whether Nvidia’s reported $25 million contribution towards Trump’s planned White House ballroom may have influenced the President’s continued support for the company’s chief executive. The contribution was reportedly made anonymously.
China gains access to powerful Nvidia chips
The anti-corruption group’s analysis also raised concerns about the consequences of easing restrictions on advanced American AI technology.
Around two dozen Chinese companies now hold licences to purchase powerful Nvidia chips, including major technology firms Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance. DeKleptocracy said two other companies that received licences were found to have empty offices and links to blacklisted firms.
The report cited an estimate by an analyst that America’s computing advantage over China had fallen from around ten times to no more than five times. Chinese Premier Li Qiang and DeepSeek’s chief executive have both identified restrictions on access to American chips as the single biggest obstacle to China’s AI development.
The group argued that Trump’s trading activity and policy decisions may have helped China overcome some of those restrictions, allowing it to build greater computing capacity.
DeKleptocracy calls for investigation into Trump’s stock trades
The report also widened its criticism beyond Nvidia, drawing comparisons with allegations of foreign influence involving Russia. It referred to a Wall Street Journal report about the Kremlin’s pitch to the White House around “peace through business” and the efforts of Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev to present Russia as a financial opportunity for the Trump family.
DeKleptocracy argued that the Kremlin had previously used business interests and political pressure to influence Trump’s approach towards Ukraine, including the campaign to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden. It also referred to the Hunter Biden laptop controversy and the more recent discussions around Alaskan liquefied natural gas.
The group questioned why federal investigators had not examined the information contained in Trump’s publicly available financial disclosures earlier. It also raised questions about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his family’s financial firm, Cantor Fitzgerald.
According to the analysis, the firm’s AI portfolio nearly doubled during the period under examination. It also increased its Intel position by around 20 times during the quarter in which the US government took a stake in the company. The group said investigators should examine whether the firm, run by the Commerce Secretary’s sons, had any conflicts of interest given Lutnick’s role in making regulatory decisions on AI policy.
Four demands made by the anti-corruption group
DeKleptocracy has called for several steps to establish whether Trump’s financial interests influenced US technology policy.
First, it wants Trump to release his September and October stock-trading reports immediately rather than waiting until the end of the reporting quarter. It has also called on Congress to establish who within the administration knew about the intelligence findings concerning Jensen Huang and Alice Huang.
The group said the US intelligence community maintains detailed records of officials who received briefings and that these should be examined.
It has also urged state officials to push for greater transparency around businesses regulated at state level, arguing that the administration’s financial interests require closer scrutiny.
Finally, DeKleptocracy called on the FBI and Department of Justice to explain why they had not acted on information available through the President’s financial disclosures. It also urged lawmakers, including Republican House Minority Leader Jim Jordan and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, to seek answers and demand accountability if the allegations are substantiated.
The group acknowledged that the timing of Trump’s trades and policy announcements could be coincidental. However, it argued that the pattern, combined with the intelligence warnings involving Nvidia’s chief executive, warrants an investigation.
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