Chip company insiders sold a record $1.3 billion in stock during the third quarter

Semiconductor executives took the opportunity of their companies' share outperformance this year to sell $1.35 billion worth of company stock during the third quarter, according to data from the Washington Service, which tracks insider transactions. That's the highest quarterly value sold by employees and directors of companies in the semiconductor industry, the Washington Service said, and includes pre-planned sales.

Chip insiders have stepped up their sales of company stock this year as AI-driven demand for processing power has propelled the sector's outperformance. Nvidia (NVDA) is the second-best performing stock in the S & P 500 so far in 2024, up more than 137% since December 2023. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) which tracks a basket of chip stocks, is up 38% YTD while the SPDR S & P 500 ETF (SPY) is up 19% over the same period.

SMH .SPX YTD mountain VanEck Semiconductors ETF vs. S & P 500, YTD Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has led the stock sales this year, unloading more than $700 million in Nvidia shares during the second and third quarters of 2024, fulfilling a trading plan adopted in March.

A recent regulatory filing indicated that Huang had completed the planned sales. Huang remains Nvidia's largest individual shareholder with around 3.5% of company shares outstanding, according to data from FactSet.

Companies will often say that preplanned sales under rule 10b5-1 should not be considered the same as open market sells and buys because these plans are often used for .