President Donald Trump has called artificial-intelligence safety fears a "hoax."
But that doesn't prevent his investment portfolio from capitalizing on those fears. The president's latest financial disclosure for July shows his portfolio bought stocks of cybersecurity companies, which address the growing need for protection as AI keeps developing.
Both the White House and the Trump Organization said Trump's stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions.
"Neither President Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold," White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Barron's in an email.
Trump's portfolio bought CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and Datadog stock-up to $1 million worth of each-in July, according to a filing released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Tuesday. The filing lists more than 1,000 transactions.
The biggest sales were Microsoft and Amazon.com stock, between $5 million and $25 million of each, on July 20. Amazon shares have been roughly flat since then, while Microsoft stock has surged 25% over the period.
There were several other Microsoft stock transactions in the month, including a sale of up to $5 million and a buy of up to $250,000, and a handful of smaller purchases and sales.
There were also some trades in the software sector, which is facing AI disruption concerns. The disclosure contains big purchases of Adobe, Workday, and ServiceNow, up to $1 million each, and up to $5 million of Intuit shares in July, in a similar trend to trades made earlier in the year.
On the software theme, Trump's portfolio sold up to $5 million of Oracle stock on July 20 but bought up to $5 million of Salesforce on the same day. Oracle is up 15% since then but Salesforce has jumped 37% over the same period.
Several well-established AI plays were traded, too, including Nvidia and Marvell Technology. The disclosure revealed a purchase of up to $5 million of Marvell while there was a purchase of up to $1 million of Nvidia on July 20 after a sale of up to $1 million on the previous trading day, July 17.
Trump's portfolio managers-like pretty much everyone else-also bought SpaceX stock. But caution may be the optimal word-the filing reveals a purchase of up to $50,000 worth of the rocket and satellite company's shares on July 10 and then a sale of up to $15,000 a week later.
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