Members of Nvidia’s board of directors have cashed out roughly $300 million worth of holdings in the $2 trillion artificial intelligence giant so far this year, benefiting from the company’s recent stock price surge.
Tench Coxe, a longtime Nvidia board member and former managing director of California-based venture capital investment firm Sutter Hill Ventures, sold 200,000 shares on March 5 for prices between $850.03 and $852.50. According to regulatory filings.
The deal was a $170.5 million windfall for Coxe, who has served on NVIDIA’s board since 1993.
Under the terms of his directorship, Mr. Cox will receive $255,000 in restricted stock and $85,000 in cash annually. Fortune reported.
He bought the chipmaker’s stock for just $0.82 in 1997, two years before the company went public.
This figure means Mr. Cox earned more than 100,000% on his investment nearly 30 years ago.
For reference, the AI chip developer’s CEO Jensen Huang owns approximately 86 million shares (3.5%) of the company.
Hwang has amassed a $78 billion fortune through his holdings in the company, and has jumped to No. 20 on Bloomberg’s list of billionaires.
The day before Cox’s sale, NVIDIA board member Mark Stevens (who joined the board in 2008) sold 12,000 shares at prices between $852.06 and $855.02, for a profit of about $10.2 million, according to Fortune. Reporting. It cited a separate Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Mr. Stevens, the billionaire managing partner of private family office investment firm S-Cubed Capital and a former partner at well-known VC firm Sequoia Capital, sold another 15,000 shares worth about $12 million last month.
And in January, Stevens, who has been on the board since 2008, sold 36,000 shares of Nvidia stock, which was trading at about $546 a share, for a salary of about $19.7 million, Fortune reported. .
Another board member, biopharmaceutical veteran Mark Perry, who also serves as an independent consultant to Nvidia, bought 15,000 shares for about $11.9 million on February 23, according to Fortune. I sold it.
Perry’s deal comes two days after Nvidia reported fourth-quarter revenue that beat expectations by an impressive 7% margin.
A week later, Harvey Jones, a longtime Nvidia board member and managing partner at private investment firm Square Wave Venture, sold his 65,000 shares of the company’s stock for a total of $53 million.
Year-to-date, six transactions have netted four of NVIDIA’s 13 board members a total of $276.8 million.
Despite the sales, all board members still hold significant stakes in Nvidia.
Mr. Cox owns about 4.1 million shares, and Mr. Stevens owns about 4.4 million shares, according to Fortune magazine.
Mr. Perry still owns 152,000 shares, and Mr. Jones owns about 1 million shares, according to Fortune magazine.
The decline comes amid a historic rally for Nvidia on the Nasdaq, competing for the title of most valuable company with Microsoft and Apple, valued at $3 trillion and $2.6 trillion, respectively.
As of this writing, Nvidia is trading at $917.10, up more than 30% in the last month alone and a whopping 90.51% year-to-date.
The company currently boasts a market capitalization of $2.3 trillion.
A representative for Nvidia declined to comment.
