It Wasn't Pelosi, Part 2: Congress Member Spends Half Their Salary On Chip Stock Ahead Of The CHIPS Act

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A member of Congress made a questionable stock purchase that was well-timed with legislation. Here’s that latest Congress stock trade that will be publicly scrutinized.

What Happened: A new filing from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, shows he purchased shares of Intel Corporation INTC on Aug. 5, 2022.

The filing, as reported by Congresstrading.com, shows two separate purchases made by a joint account from Tuberville.

The two purchases were for ranges of $1,000 to $5,000 and $100,000 to $250,000. The senator acquired $101,000 to $255,000 in Intel stock on Aug. 5.

The timing is of particular note as the CHIPS Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden four days later. 

The CHIPS Act gave $50 billion in funding to chip companies, including Intel.

See Also: Members Of Congress Buy Energy, Defense Stocks Prior To Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

Why It’s Important: Another member of Congress was in the hot seat over purchases related to the CHIPS Act. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi saw purchases of NVIDIA Corp. NVDA by her husband scrutinized as the company stood to benefit from the CHIPS Act. The Pelosis later very publicly announced that they sold the shares and lost money on the trade.

Pelosi also traveled to Taiwan and met Mark Liu, the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor TSM, a company she indirectly owns shares of through her husband’s purchase of Alliance Bernstein Holding AB shares. Alliance Bernstein holds shares of Taiwan Semiconductor.

While Pelosi has been in the spotlight for stock and options trades made by her husband, Tuberville is no stranger to the limelight. Benzinga recently profiled a purchase he made in shares of ChannelAdvisor Corp ECOM.

The purchase by Tuberville came shortly before it was announced that ChannelAdvisor was being acquired by CommerceHub. The acquisition news sent shares significantly higher and increased the value of Tuberville’s purchase by between $59,677 and $149,193.

Tuberville, who is a former college football coach for the University of Cincinnati, Texas Tech University, Auburn University and the University of Mississippi, has been flagged for previous trading activity.

UnusualWhales has also flagged Tuberville for having a history of being slow to disclose trades.

“You voted for Senator Tuberville to represent you, instead he’s trading cattle, wheat and corn contracts. Btw he sits on Senate Agriculture Committee,” Congresstrading tweeted in September 2021.

There have been increased calls to ban members of Congress and their spouses from buying and selling stocks. These calls could increase with the latest activity from Pelosi, Tuberville and others.

According to a New York Times study, 97 lawmakers or their family members inked deals over a three-year span in sectors that could be influenced by their legislative work.

INTC Price Action: The purchase from Tuberville came on Aug. 5 when the stock traded for a range of $35.18 to $35.69. If Tuberville bought shares at the lowest price on the day he would be down 22%. The purchase would be down between $18,287.93 and $46,172.44 since buying the stock.

Intel shares hit new 52-week lows of $28.72 on Thursday.