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President Donald Trump's Investment Team Sold Up to $25 Million in 2 Foundational AI Stocks in July

The Motley Fool·10/02/2026 08:26:02
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Key Points

  • President Trump’s independent, third-party investment team has made approximately 28,700 trades since January 2025.

  • The evolution of AI wouldn’t be as exciting without these two businesses at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology.

  • Profit-taking likely explains some of this selling activity, but perhaps not all of it.

Some of the savviest billionaire money managers on Wall Street make hundreds of trades per quarter. But this doesn't even come close to matching the sheer number of trades undertaken by President Donald Trump's independent, third-party investment team since his second non-consecutive term began.

According to required U.S. Office of Government Ethics filings, Trump's financial disclosures list approximately 28,700 trades since January 2025, including 1,156 new trades in July 2026. While many of these trades are well below $1 million, two disclosed sales stand out: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), each ranging from $5,000,001 to $25,000,000.

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Donald Trump is sitting with his hands tented while listening during an Oval Office meeting.

President Trump's independent, third-party investment team completed 1,156 trades in July. Image source: Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok.

Amazon and Microsoft are foundational AI stocks

There's no hotter trend on Wall Street than artificial intelligence (AI). Empowering software and systems with the tools needed to make split-second, autonomous decisions is a game-changing technology for most industries around the globe, with multitrillion-dollar potential.

While most investors have been fawning over AI hardware companies and taking advantage of the insatiable enterprise demand for graphics processing units, high-bandwidth memory, storage solutions, and rack servers, Amazon and Microsoft have established themselves as leaders in AI applications.

Before AI became the greatest thing since sliced bread for investors, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft's Azure were the world's No.'s 1 and 2 cloud infrastructure services platforms by total spend. Since generative AI and large language model capabilities were integrated into AWS and Azure, sales growth for both segments has rapidly accelerated.

AWS logged 37% sales growth in the June-ended quarter, representing its fastest revenue growth in 18 quarters. Meanwhile, Azure's sales growth jumped to 43% in Microsoft's fiscal fourth quarter (ending June 30).

These high-margin platforms, coupled with Amazon and Microsoft spending a small fortune to build out their AI infrastructure, have been foundational to the AI revolution.

A businessperson is pressing the sell button on an oversized digital screen.

Image source: Getty Images.

Trump's investment team just dumped Amazon and Microsoft stocks

With both companies performing so well, you might be wondering why Donald Trump's independent, third-party investing team sold large dollar amounts of each. Profit-taking is likely part of the answer, but perhaps not all of it.

The president's trades are reportedly driven by automated direct-indexing computer models. This allows for rapid-fire trading and the ability to take profits off the table quickly. But there may be more to this than just profit-taking.

History shows that every game-changing innovation since (and including) the advent and proliferation of the internet in the mid-1990s has navigated a bubble-bursting event. These bubbles form because investors persistently overestimate the pace of adoption and/or optimization of game-changing technologies. While AI has been rapidly adopted, we're likely years away from businesses -- even Amazon and Microsoft -- optimizing AI solutions to maximize sales and profits.

Additionally, stock market valuations are through the roof, courtesy of the AI build-out. While Amazon and Microsoft are, respectively, cheaper than other "Magnificent Seven" stocks, both would probably take it on the chin if the second-priciest stock market in history came back to Earth.

Sean Williams has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.