A progressive Democrat who has pushed to ban stock trading in Congress now sits atop the leaderboard for AI-chip profits, and the contradiction is drawing fire from both Wall Street critics and his own challenger back home in Silicon Valley.

Rep. Ro Khanna earned a 143 percent return, between $100,000 and $250,000, on Nvidia shares his wife purchased in February 2024, the New York Post reported. The gain vaulted Khanna past the lawmaker long synonymous with well-timed trades: Nancy Pelosi, whose husband's stock picks have spawned an entire cottage industry of online copycats through the so-called "Pelosi Tracker."

The numbers matter less for their dollar size than for what they reveal. Khanna serves as ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems, the panel that oversees defense AI procurement. His wife's trust, reportedly worth tens of millions, bought shares in the chipmaker that powers most of the country's artificial-intelligence infrastructure. And Khanna himself has publicly called for banning the very practice that padded his family's portfolio.

The data behind the trades

Anthony Pompliano, whose firm ProCap Insights compiled data on members of Congress who traded AI-related stocks, put it bluntly on X on April 8. He wrote:

"Nancy Pelosi take a seat. There is a new king in town when it comes to Congress members being abnormally good traders. Ro Khanna has DESTROYED the S&P 500 since January 2024."

Pompliano's analysis pointed to the gap between Khanna's Nvidia returns and the broader market. The S&P 500 comparison since January 2024 was the baseline, and Khanna's Nvidia position left it far behind. ProCap Insights suggested that Khanna, given his subcommittee role, could have been privy to inside information, a claim the congressman has denied.

Quiver Quantitative, a platform that tracks congressional trading disclosures, ranks Khanna as the most active Democratic trader in the House of Representatives. The numbers are not small: more than $600 million in trading volume across 37,172 trades. Quiver's data also showed the representative buying shares in Albertson's, Berkshire Hathaway, BlackRock Financial, Coinbase, and other firms throughout February.

That volume alone should raise eyebrows. Most Americans do not execute 37,000 trades over any period. Most Americans do not sit on committees that shape the regulatory and procurement landscape for the very companies filling their brokerage accounts.

Khanna's defense, and its limits

Khanna responded on X with a statement that has become familiar in Washington whenever a lawmaker's trading record draws scrutiny. He wrote:

"I have been a leader to ban Congressional stock trading, do not trade, and have no input in the trades filed by my wife's trust."

The defense rests on a distinction: the trades belong to his wife Ritu's trust, not to him. Ritu is described as a wealthy heiress whose father founded Transtar Industries Inc. The trust is worth tens of millions. Khanna says he has no input in its investment decisions.

That firewall may satisfy the letter of current disclosure rules. It does not satisfy common sense. Pelosi herself has faced similar charges of saying one thing and doing another, and the public's patience for these explanations grows thinner each cycle.

A 2022 New York Times investigation found significant potential conflicts between Khanna's congressional work and his family's financial interests, calculating a 15 percent overlap between his legislative portfolio and his family's holdings. Fifteen percent may sound modest in the abstract. Applied to a trust worth tens of millions, it represents a meaningful intersection of public duty and private gain.

Critics close to home

Ethan Agarwal, a challenger for Khanna's congressional seat, seized on the contradiction. He told the Post:

"Nancy Pelosi is rich and everyone knows it, she doesn't try to hide it. Ro tries to be a man of the people. It's the hypocrisy of it is that's causing such a stir."

Agarwal pressed further, noting that the trades are legal but voluntary. "It's legal, but does that mean you're forced to trade? No one's forcing you to do this," he said. He added bluntly: "He thinks people are stupid."

The charge of hypocrisy carries particular weight because Khanna has positioned himself as a populist crusader. He teamed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders to push a national billionaire tax, a proposal aimed squarely at the kind of wealth his own family holds. When Democratic lawmakers demand accountability from others while sidestepping scrutiny of their own conduct, voters notice the pattern.

Prominent venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, called Khanna a "terrible representative of Silicon Valley." On X, Palihapitiya wrote:

"The sad thing is that Ro is the guy preaching for socialism while he is the most active insider trader in Congress."

A bipartisan problem Congress won't fix

Khanna is not alone. The Post identified several other representatives with hefty AI-related investment returns, including Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene, Michael McCaul, and Markwayne Mullin, as well as Democrat Cleo Fields. The problem crosses party lines, and the failure to address it does too.

Congress has tried and failed over the years to rein in stock trading by its members. A Republican-led bill called the Stop Insider Trading Act would add restrictions, but Democrats have criticized it as filled with loopholes. Procedural disagreements on the House floor have a way of burying even popular reforms, and stock-trading restrictions are no exception.

The result is a system that lets lawmakers, or their spouses, or their trusts, trade shares in companies whose fortunes depend on the very committees those lawmakers sit on. Nvidia's value is tied directly to federal AI procurement, CHIPS Act funding, and defense spending. Khanna's subcommittee touches all three areas. His wife's trust holds the stock. And the public is left to take his word that no information crosses the dinner table.

Unusual Whales, another trading-disclosure tracker, noted that Khanna's overall returns in 2025 slightly underperformed the market. That detail offers some context, not every bet lands. But it does not erase the Nvidia windfall or the structural conflict that made it possible.

Pelosi's husband has long been the face of congressional trading excess. His stock picks are so closely watched that retail investors copy them in real time. Pelosi has spent recent years focused on other political battles, but her family's trading record remains a symbol of Washington's self-dealing culture. Khanna now threatens to inherit that title, with the added wrinkle of having publicly campaigned against the practice.

The real cost

The damage here is not measured in Nvidia share prices. It is measured in public trust. Every time a lawmaker profits from a sector his committee regulates, then points to a spouse's trust as a shield, ordinary Americans grow more cynical about whether the rules apply equally.

Khanna says he wants to ban congressional stock trading. His family's portfolio says otherwise. Until Congress passes a real ban, one without the loopholes both parties keep finding convenient, voters are right to judge lawmakers not by their press releases but by their brokerage statements.

A man who campaigns against the game shouldn't be its highest scorer.